September 14th, 2023

In the meantime, I’ve received some news from Morocco. Fortunately, none of the people I know were injured or killed, but the material damage is simply staggering.

On 1 May, I stayed in the Azzaden Valley, more precisely at Auberge des Arts, Dar Da Omar. The owner has finally been able to reply to my message. Having heard nothing until Tuesday, I was very worried. Thankfully, he and his family are safe and unharmed. Unfortunately, the inn was completely destroyed. The family lived in a separate building, which suffered less damage but is still too badly damaged to live in.

The inn was perched on the mountainside, overlooking the valley. Part of the building was supported by pillars that clearly gave way, causing the whole structure to collapse. Such a shame, as the place was truly idyllic. But as the owner wrote in his message: “WITH HOPE, WE WILL ALL RISE TOGETHER!” A beautiful lesson in courage and resilience. They packed their car with what they could salvage and headed to join their family in Ourigane, where humanitarian aid seems to be better organised. This village is only a few kilometres from the earthquake’s epicentre.

Regarding my favourite campsite, Atlas View, in Aït-Ben-Haddou near Ouarzazate, where I stayed two nights on 3 and 4 May, early reports spoke of moderate damage. But the video I received (see my blog post from 11 September) shows much more severe destruction. I also received photos of the outside of the main building, revealing the full extent of the damage. This surprised me greatly, as the site is nearly 300 kilometres from the epicentre, on the other side of the Atlas Mountain range. I didn’t expect the earthquake to have such a violent impact at that distance.

When I crossed the Atlas to reach Aït-Ben-Haddou, I took the RP1506 road along the Ounila river valley, a magnificent, steep, and hard-to-access valley. I imagine this region, too, has been badly affected.

I’ve included some maps in the photos to help locate the different places mentioned and show their distance from the epicentre. It’s all very sad, and the news coming from Libya with the devastating floods is also deeply tragic.