Stage 29A “A day around Figuig”
“Salam Alikam”
Today found us off into town for some food shopping and then after lunch a walk to the now Closed Border Crossing between Morocco & Algeria, coming back to the Hotel/Campsite via a route that would take us back through the some of the Palmerie ….
So first off to the food shops, passing by some of the old parts…..
And then the newer parts…..
Passing the Tourist Office which is closed in winter, as they fit new street lamps on the road…..
With a map of Figuig and the different Ksar’s ,Villages of different colours on the map while the Palmerie is the dark areas surrounding the Villages…..
Palmerie left and right looking South…..
Nice Municipal Garden but it was closed and locked up….
Town Centre....
Not quite what we were looking for in the Veggie shop….
While just up the road we entered one of the Ksar’s which is being refurbished as we understand as part of a UNESCO Project…..
So off we go inside to have a look……
Keeping the ceiling up, while working on other bits……
The smoothness of the walls tells us it has been refurbished…..
Notice the ceiling which has been crafted from Palm trees…..
The vertical ‘joists’ are from the trunk, while the ‘triangular’ pieces are made from the ends of the Palm branches…..
Before the refurbishment starts some of the areas look like this…..
Then back outside
After getting back to the campsite and having a bit of lunch, we are off on the next leg to the Closed Border Crossing….
The Hotel/camping is partly on top of this rock face!.....
With a section of the Palmerie spread out before us as we walk along the road….
Another part of the old town is on our right elevated as though it is a lookout section…..
Continuing along the N17 we pass this rather strange looking building…..
With an example of one of the nice houses that are along the road…..
While another of the Ksar’s is off to the right, we continue straight on towards BNI OUNIF....
As irrigation water passes alongside the sign and on down the road ….
A Panoramic view that really doesn’t do justice to the view that your eyes get to see….
It seems that the border runs across this Mountain as there is an Algerian flag on top, just to the right of where the Power Line comes up off the Mountain which sadly you cannot see in the picture.....
On our left is a cemetery which has been virtually destroyed as only a few graves have been re-marked out with rectangles of stones placed around them, while it appears that the road has been driven through the middle as there are graves on both sides of the road…
Then passing between the mountains….
We come to the first sign for the Border…..
Then the second while the Border is in front….
While here is the Closed Border with the attendant weeds growing in the road….
Turned around and heading back we see this small ‘tree’ in the fields along with many more, and they look like the head of a Cauliflower…..
It is called…..
Channoud (le chou-fleur de Bou Amama
"A vigorous cylindrical shrub, up to 1 meter high, (the ones we are seeing are around 10Cm) it looks like a huge cauliflower.
The branches are very compact with sand in the interstices.
The small fleshy leaves, not exceeding 5 mm., are opposite, very tightly attached to the stems, and blue-green. Each leaf ends in a small spine. There are
2 to 3 small flowers located at the tips of the stems.
The fruit is a small achene surrounded by transparent wings of the evergreen perianth.
Flowering occurs in autumn." (I guess we missed that part!)
The small ‘shrubs trunk’ has the white part circle around it in the next picture…
The café with no customers now as this is the first one from the closed border, and a good way from town….
While turning left we enter part of the Palmerie, irrigation canals included…..
The large water irrigation tanks at various places as we walk back to the Hotel/camping…
With one last look back as we turn around the final couple of bends in the track before we get back…..
tisbah `ala khair (Arabic ‘Good night’)
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