Meandering Morocco

The bustle, colour and riot of smells that is Marrakesh can practically assault the senses when you first step out of your vehicle onto the kerb. A kerb carved from stone and possibly having stood there for the past half century. Although of course modern tar, pitted with use, covers the more ancient cobblestones, and runs up against newer concrete curbs as well. Traffic screams by in an insane riot with rules that seem only apparent to the local drivers. Stepping away from the din that is the vehicular ring road around the old city walls, the Medina, you pass into a cooler alley filled with pedestrian traffic and the occasional hooting motorcycle. This is Marrakesh, and it’s awesome!

We ran our first recce workshop in Morocco earlier this year with a group of well-traveled photographers who have been on multiple workshops over the years. Our happy band all met, flight mishaps not-withstanding, in the somewhat quieter more European-like city of Casablanca. An odd choice according to the ground-handler company that Nature’s Light decided to pair with. Apparently Casablanca is one of the least tourist oriented cities in Morocco, lending itself more toward business travel than holiday-goers. Yet, the city was fantastic to explore as a photographer. The more cosmopolitan lifestyle and populace make this an excellent soft-landing for photographers wanting to capture something of the vibrance that is Morocco.

Streets with colourful murals painted on the walls, men and women clothed in business attire and traditional dress alike throng the pavements. Small alleys entice with the smell of cooked meat and spices. Gulls cry in the air on the broader boulevards that run towards the shoreline. Although made famous by the movie, there is actually far more to explore than the footsteps of Bogart and Bergman (although your driver will undoubtedly point out the famous café). In particular there is the intricately stuccoed Hasan II Mosque,  the largest functioning mosque in Africa, and the 14th largest in the world.

This beautiful building has a commanding place along Casablanca’s shoreline. Our group was able to visit this iconic holy site in both the late afternoon as well as the following morning. My favourite time was by far the late afternoon when the cream coloured facade was bathed in orange light, transforming the building to a delicate rose colour. As the sun settled over the Atlantic, halogen lights illuminate the tall minaret (the second tallest in the world at 210 metres high) and bath the entire building in a yellow glow.

After spending the following morning walking through the ornately filigreed interior of the mosque we traveled through northwards past Rabat (briefly stopping to photograph the old walled city overlooking the harbour as well as spending some time wandering around the 12th centuryHasan Tower and the Mausoleum of Mohammed) and towards the extraordinary Chefchaouen; the Blue City.

Originally a military base,  the city grew quickly with Muslim and Jewish refugees fleeing from Spain and the Spanish conquest of Grenada. The old walled city and media is exceptionally well preserved and continues the tradition of painting all the walls blue or white. The town has been a tourist attraction for a very long time, turning the primary industry of the city (at least the old city) into that of an artisanal market. For us, it was more enticing to get into the pathways and narrow alleys before the start of trade. Here, countless compositions can be created with the blue streets, walls and even blue paths.

As the weather turned and rain started to slick the old and worn cobblestones, we found an excellent little restaurant overlooking the Plaza in the centre of the old city. One of the delights of visiting Morocco is the excellent food. Eating a warm tagline looking out over the wet streets is an experience in it’s own right. From there though, our group split up to wander the streets and explore some of the viewpoints. At the end of the day we managed one of our crit sessions (a staple on any of the Nature’s Light workshops) as well as shoot overlooking the city as the light faded and halogen and tungsten bulbs hanging of walls and streetlamp painted the into an even more saturated palette of blue, azure, turquoise and white.

Fes - our next destination - is a city that you hear as well as see. Staying near the edge of the old walled city, we were able to look out over the yellow and cream coloured walls of the tightly packed homes and building that crowd the Medina. Just before dawn the tinny wail of the dozens of loudhailers projecting the lilting call of the the meuzzins of each mosque and prayer hall reciting their daily prayers, each jostling audibly for the attention of the worshipful. As the sun crests over the hills towards the east the city takes on an amber glow, highlighted with halogen lit minarets dotted strategically across the old cityscape. A guide is virtually essential as you wend your way through the tightly packed walkways. Here everyone seems to live cheek to cheek as you pass through the incessant press of bodies. Yet, when you step through a doorway , seemingly derelict and pockmarked with age, you step across a threshold into an ornately decorated palace, with customary water fountain and multiple tiers of rooms where the family lives or the business runs. Staring at the indentations in walls, old wiring looped between the windows of houses, you cannot help but feel the movement of time indelibly imprinted on the architecture. Over all this is the constant sound of the city, even when you view it from the old fort overlooking the walled dwellings. Like the breathing of some enormous stone giant, voices ebb and flow in a rhythmic cadence intertwined with the sound of music.

From Fes our group of recce photographers continued over the mountains top the desert in the eastern side of the Atlas. This was somewhat plagued by the weather. Snowfall had us changing routes twice, setting back and delaying the journey to the east. This was frustrating as we drove past Barbary apes sitting in the snow without the opportunity to stop (something that we will plan against in the next workshop for 2025). Frustration continued to mount as we wrestled our way through stopped traffic at point where passes had been closed. This is what recce workshops are for though, something we were aware of on first planning the journey to Morocco. Weather also waits for no photographer and the distances in Morocco are vast, such that occasionally we had to just bare the time and allow the miles to go by however slowly.

Here we were now on route to the Sahara Desert. The Mezouga desert and Erg Chebbi dunes is a pocket of yellow sand near the border of Algeria where the Berbers make their home. The common misconception is that all of the Sahara looks like this. The reality is that the vast bulk of the Sahara desert is actually gravel plains. The Western Sahara to the south of Morocco is more akin to the idealised vision of the Sahara as depicted in Herge’s adventures of Tintin. The Erg Chebbi is one of the dune fields that is accessible to travel. Here a number ion desert camps have been set up on the eastern side off the dunes, all with access either by 4x4 or over the dune field itself on a camel ride.

Calling the camel ride a highlight would be a stretch admittedly. They are not particularly comfortable to sit on and there are a lot of camel trains that cross the desert. If you are looking for pristine desert sands and rolling dunes with no hint of people…Chebbi is not it. Hundreds of tourists descend on this desert playground every day. Vehicles, quad bikes and of course dozens if not hundreds of camels can be found in the dunes at and around sunrise and sunset. That said, our group came away with some fantastic imagery of camels trekking in the distance.

As an aside the experience of the desert on the Meandering Morocco recce is one of the principle reasons why we have split the tour into two sections. The second section also visits the more distant and remote Erg Chigaga which promises fewer tourists compared to the more accessible Erg Chebbi. If you have been lucky enough to visit Namibia’s Skeleton Coast or Sandwich Bay on the edge of the Namib Desert, the Erg Chebbi of Morocco might be a disappointment in terms of landscape photography…but for cultural travel photography, it is a unique and colourful experience to photograph.

---

We opted to spend two nights in the desert camp, which allowed us to visit a traditional semi-nomadic Berber camp as well as artisanal mining in the hills to the east of the dunes. Although the area is very definitely used to seeing tourists (about the only real income apart from the artisanal mining), there is still a sense of authenticity to a lot of the places you visit. Eateries are built into the homes of the Berber you meet, and traditional life and customs spill out into the dusty street regardless of who is there to witness. Something else that we were struck by was the number of people who were quite happy to have their photographs taken. This is something you don’t expect visiting a country that has ‘rules’ governing images of the self. Regardless, all our group were able to create portraits of some of the people we met in the desert, far more so in fact than in the cities.

Despite the town of Merzouga being close by, the desert also has less light pollution than anywhere near the cities, giving opportunity to photograph the stars over the desert sands - something several of us attempted on our second night in camp. This was a treat as you genuinely felt you had the dunes to yourself (and some noisy camels grunting in the basin below).

Then there are the extraordinary valley settlements that run the length the eastern side of the Atlas Mountains. Boulmane Dades, Midelt, Ait Ben Haddou and Ourzazate. These deep valleys hide homes and building that date back hundreds of years in some cases. Beautiful palettes of green and grey rest against the rust reds and oranges of the cliffs and mountains. Every corner holds a composition for the camera.

Our journey continued back over the Atlas Mountains where we then cut in towards Imlil, a small mountain village that was devastated by an earthquake in 2023. Extraordinary effort has gone into rebuilding and repairing countless buildings, miles of roads and assisting displaced families. The scars are still very much visible as you grind up the narrow valley to the base of the small town. The roads are so narrow and steep that you have to leave the vehicle and use donkeys to transport your luggage to the top if the village where our hotel was. From here we were able to catch a glimpse of Morocco’s tallest peak, Mount Toubkhal. The cold mountain air and descending cloud kept us from shooting too long into the evening as we gazed towards the mountain, but the location itself was extraordinary.

Then finally we found ourselves in the insane bustle of Marrakesh. You could easily visit just Marrakesh and wander through the ancient gates to the city and feel like your journey to Morocco has been worth it. It is world so different to anything that I have experienced before. Of course every country, every culture, is different, but Marrakesh is half modern, half ancient, half European, half Arabic, Half African, half Caucasian. There’s a reason it is one of the most visited cities in the country. Fes feels authentically Moroccan, Casablanca a picture of modernity, while Marrakesh is the loudly bubbling melting pot. So our time in Morocco suddenly vanished and we were contemplating the return to our respective homes. One of the joys of photography though is the reliving of the moment and the experience as we work through images created on the workshop. Each time I gaze at these photos I can’t help but be excited about going back!

We’ve put together a revised itinerary for 2025. Meandering Morocco is now split into two section. The first, Meandering Morocco explores the cultural centres of this ancient kingdom. After arriving in Casablanca we travel first to the city of Fez with it’s famous and packed Medina. This also serves as a base to venture into the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in search of Barbary Apes. From there we make our way to the picturesque and enticing city of Chefchaouen. We spend a night in the city and Capital of Rabat before exploring the intricate alleys and pathways of Marrakesh. The second section, which can be added on to the first, or joined independently, crosses the Atlas to the beautiful valley cities on the edge of the Sahara Desert. We also enter the dune fields of the deeper Sahara abutted against the border of Algeria. The division of the workshop allows for photographers to either explore both the eastern and western sides of the tall mountains, with the distinct differences in culture and architecture, or to have a shorter trip of one or the other.