Zagora

Zagora, we finally made it! And, spoiler alert: it held all its promises and fulfilled all our wishes.

We arrived and recognised a few things from some YouTube videos of other van-travellers, which was a funny experience! The Main Street was super busy as you would expect, shops, cafes, restaurants, schools, street vendors - and of course garage after garage with lines of campervans, overlanders and motorhomes waiting to get their work done.

The campsite we picked was a little outside of town, this was on purpose both, because it had great reviews, but also to ensure we can get a few more steps in every day. We had no reservation, which the host noted that this would become a problem in 2 days time as a large group had announced themselves and apparently booked the entire site. Not a problem we thought, we had another campsite as a backup location anyway, but we happily agreed to stay 2 nights. Our pitch was great and the campsite lovely. Many palm trees gave the place a great vibe and the people were super friendly. Facilities clean, bread available around the clock and if you want you can have dinner at the pool. Fantastic!

After we had set everything up, we took our first stroll into town. It's about a 20 minute walk (later we learned there is a shortcut cutting it down to ~10 minutes) through palm trees, over a bridge (no water under it though) and along some lovely buildings.
Just behind Zagora is a nice mountain range and on one mountain they used walls to write "الله الوطن الملك" (God – Homeland – King) which is illuminated at night and greatly adds to the atmosphere.

The city is quite vast, but there is definitely THE main street which has all you need. And everything will be advertised to you directly by the sellers, most of which are super friendly. Many point out "it's the Berber hospitality" and we did find it was true. Whenever you spotted a Berber, they seemed to be exceptionally friendly. When I say "spotted", it's not like you spot a lion in the desert, it's more that Berber and Nomads have traditional clothing styles and many still stick to it today. Also, they have jewellery (necklaces) with different shapes and meanings which can give away someone's heritage. All of this we learned - several times - because initially we felt it was too harsh to say "no". Trust me, we quickly learned that "no", "no, thanks" and "no thank you" are your best friends in Moroccan cities!
That being said, if I ever were to run a business the success of which relies on salesmen, I would send all of my employees to Morocco to learn from the street vendors and business owners. Ka-ching! 💰

After 2 days we switch campsites and found that our backup plan campsite was perfect, too. Again exceptionally friendly people, great service and a lovely location. We had planned to do the laundry, but were quickly assured, it was not for us to do this work. The bag with dirty laundry was taken from us as they insisted it's part of the price (6€ for 2 machines). Next thing we knew our laundry was hanging perfectly neat from the lines for drying. This I can get used to!

Time for our first souk ("big market for everything, including doing business" - as we were told). On our way to the souk we were quickly identified as tourists, of course. A friendly local asked where we were headed and started smiling from ear-to-ear when he learned it's the souk as this was also his destination - he has a tent there, of course! He taught us the shortcut looking at us in disbelief we really intended to walk 10 mins longer than necessary. On our way he gave us a little history lesson, but also played random WhatsApp voice messages - which I mostly had the privilege of listening to - to prove that he was no fraud, was indeed shipping to Italy (546 dirhams customs fee!!!!), Germany ("so ein schönes Schmuckstück") and many other places.
When we arrived at the souk, we were happy that he pointed out the truck of hay is not for humans, but it's animal food - who would've thought 🤪 Of course he proudly showed us to his tent and was getting ready to provide us with the story of every single Berber necklace shape there is for our 4th time. So, we quickly put our new skill - "saying no" politely, but very firmly - to good use and escaped without purchasing anything.

Time to take in the souk. It's an interesting experience and you can really get everything from a power drill, to toilet paper, to rope to fruit and vegetables, TVs that looked as if they predate the big bang itself and really everything else you can think of. Our mission, however, was simple: get our first ever Moroccan veggies and fruit. And we succeeded, although we still cannot believe the prices and can't help but wonder why everything is so expensive in Germany. The price is determined by weighing - nothing new you might think, but it's a special technique! Your entire "shopping cart" (which is usually just a washing-up bowl) is weighed and that's it. It's not that apples cost this, bananas that, avocado the other. No, it's 1 price determined by weight. And the price is incredible. 1 week's worth of veggies and fruit ran us about 5€. We were happy customers!

Right next to our campsite was a nice little Riad which according to Google Maps offered great food. So, we took the opportunity and splurged. Starters, Tagines, freshly squeezed orange juice all by the poolside. It tasted fantastic and they kept bringing bread for the great dips. Once again we experienced incredibly friendly service which made the evening just perfect.

On our final night, we "hiked" up the mountain with the big letters and took in a wonderful sunshine. Oh Zagora, you wonderful place; what a great start to our adventures in Morocco!