Morocco: Espressos and Sahara

Morocco began comfortably enough: a business-class flight on Saudia, followed by the keys to a rental car at the airport. Then I reached a toll booth and realised I had no cash.

Meal served at Gagan’s seat on the flight to Morocco — The comfortable beginning, before the toll-booth surprise.

Reclining aircraft seat and in-flight screen on the way to Morocco — A comfortable seat for the flight in.

I had been thinking about where to exchange money. Somehow, withdrawing it from an ATM had never occurred to me. It was a fairly dumb start to what became one of my favourite road trips.

I drove for seven days, covering roughly 2,500 kilometres. On some stretches towards the Sahara, I could go for hours without seeing another car. I would pull over, get out and look down the road in both directions. Nobody. Just the car, the landscape and me.

An empty straight road across open country with the parked car at its edge — Nobody coming in either direction.

On one of the roads that made this trip.

Most days I spent seven or eight hours behind the wheel. Every hour or so, I stopped for a shot of espresso, then got back on the road. That became the rhythm of the trip: drive, coffee, drive, coffee, and watch Morocco change outside the window.

Espresso and a basket of bread at a roadside stop in Morocco — One more espresso before the next stretch of road.

There were old cities and warm meals. At Aït Benhaddou, I walked among earthen buildings that looked like they had been there forever. I could see why filmmakers had used this part of Morocco as a setting.

Earthen buildings at Aït Benhaddou seen behind palm trees — Aït Benhaddou among the palms.

A path through palms toward the earthen buildings at Aït Benhaddou — On the way in.

Then the road would take me away from the crowds again, towards mountains, open country and eventually the desert.

The road winding through the mountains.

A narrow blue-painted lane in Morocco — Through blue-painted streets.

Blue steps surrounded by colourful market crafts — Colour around every turn.

I spent Christmas Eve at a camp in the Sahara. It was cold at night. A dust storm came through on the trip, and elsewhere I saw snow in the High Atlas—the mountain range that is home to Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak. In the space of a few days, I had gone from sand to snow.

Lantern-lit path and tents at a Sahara camp under a pink sunset — Christmas Eve at the camp as the light faded.

Sahara tents and glowing lanterns under the night sky — The camp after dark.

A carpeted path lined with glowing lanterns at the desert camp — Lanterns across the sand.

Gagan wearing a blue desert head wrap and sunglasses beside the Sahara dunes — Out among the dunes.

Tire tracks crossing orange Sahara dunes beneath a broad sky — Tracks across the sand.

A coffee cup on a table overlooking the Sahara dunes — Even the dunes came with a coffee break.

A moving view of the desert.

Stone sculpture dressed for Christmas in a red cap and white beard — A little Christmas scene along the way.

The hot-air balloon ride was another moment I won’t forget. After so many hours seeing Morocco from the driver’s seat, looking down on the landscape from above felt almost unreal.

Colourful hot-air balloons floating over Morocco in morning light — Balloons scattered across the morning sky.

Gagan in the hot-air balloon, with more balloons behind him — Up there among them.

A view from the balloon.

I felt comfortable travelling on my own there, even on the long, empty roads. Sometimes the emptiness gave me the strange feeling that I had the whole country to myself. I knew that wasn’t true, of course. But after another espresso stop, with nobody in sight and hundreds of kilometres still ahead, it was easy to feel that way.

Back in Marrakech, I waited about four hours to get into Bacha Coffee, one of my favourite cafés. After a week of quick espressos by the road, I apparently had enough patience to wait half a day for another coffee.

That was Morocco for me: a toll booth I wasn’t prepared for, Christmas Eve in the desert, snow in the mountains, a balloon in the sky, and a lot of espresso in between.

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