Way to Marrakesh and searching Cascades d’Ouzoud (one of the beautiful waterfalls in Africa)

Although the way to Marrakesh was dragging, especially as weather conditions did not allow admiring the views, we did have a few surprises on the way. We had been stopped by police twice. First time - because apparently we were driving too fast. We have been told by the policeman who operated the bushes-hidden radar that we had been driving 67km/h instead of 60km/h for what he demanded 40 Euros. Not only was he plain rude, but his English was even worse than our less-than-basic French. After we had made the I-have-never-seen-such-a-fortune-in-my-life look and waiting it out a wee while he let us off the hook without the fine. The second time when we were stopped, it was because we didn’t quite stop the car at the stop sign at one of the police checkpoints. It seems that moving at less than 5km/h as every other car did was not the right way for US to do it... This time the stop was shorter with the inability to speak French having saved us another 40 Euros.

In the middle of our way, we decided to sidetrack as Ada really wanted to see one of the famous waterfalls of Northern Africa - Cascades d’Ouzoud.

Everything seemed so easy – just 30km away from the main road. We found the right exit towards Azilal, just like was written in our guide. After driving a bit up we stopped to admire panoramic views from the Middle Atlas hills as we climbed high into the mountains. It was starting to get dark but we decided to drive a little bit further as ‘it had to be just around the corner’. The weather conditions were getting gradually worse and worse, heavy rain appeared and clouds were so low or we were so high that they started engulfing the road with a thick layer... Now if you take any guide to Morocco it will tell you: do not drive when dark, in fact do not drive in mountains at all as it’s too dangerous – it was dark, raining, we were driving a right hand drive car in the mountains on a tiny one car wide road while sometimes near-zero visibility. 34km into this we see a road sign: Cascades d’Ouzoud... 65 km. OMG! Now that’s an option: drive on for a few hours or turn back and waste all this time for nothing... Well, taking all into consideration bad conditions of the weather and road we decided to turn back... Having fortunately survived the way back we felt really hungry so we stopped in a bar for something to eat. That was first time we had tried tajine - Morocco’s signature traditional Crockpot dish –and this particular one was one of the best we had ever tasted in Morocco. When we finally reached Marrakesh, we met Zoubair, the Project Manager for the Eve Branson Foundation, who helped us find accommodation for the night.