This is my first search vacation for scorpions and other animals but my 2nd time in Morocco.
Morocco has always been a dream, just driving through the country, turning stones, by wind and weather and mostly at night. No sights, no beach - just nature and fun for long drives, sleeping in poor housing and so forth.
It was also the first time for my buddy Cornelius in this way.
Cornelius and I knew each other through the hobby of keeping scorpions. At the time he was still a chemistry student and interested in venomous animals. We didn't know each other very well, but these 10 days were perfect for that. It was cool!
There is a lot to tell and a lot to see...
For every trip I always buy a perfume in the duty free shop that suits the country. It is applied more often every day. The point of this is that I have a real flashback at home when I apply the fragrance and can remember some things and experience again. I chose Diesel - Only the Brave. It smells fresh, oriental and sweet-fruity. Perfect!
Unfortunately, Cornelius doesn't want to be shown publicly on the internet, so I have to redact him.
Fez was the cheapest to fly at the time. A bit far north but no regrets. Fez is great!
We had planned a fixed route in advance, but there was still room for maneuver. We booked the accommodation spontaneously on the route via booking.com, which always worked well, with a few exceptions.
We arrived at Riad Kasr-Nada quite late. It is practically impossible to find your booked riad in Morocco, so someone had to pick us up. It went through many alleys, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right.
Alleys
We were greeted at the riad with a mint tea and shown up to the terrace. The view over Fez was breathtaking.
Fez
At the same time we were able to agree with the owner to rent a car, which we could have directly the next morning. The rental cost 390€ (Dacia Logan) for 10 days with all-round protection. So far everything has been great!
So, in the morning the Riad by light...
Riad Kasr-Nada
The journey went to Azilal to collect Butheolides sp. to find. We stopped for spot checks along the way.
Exactly...we turned a lot of rocks and Cornelius found a bunch of turtles. Nice too!
We searched about 2 hours on this mountain.
Moorish Tortoise / Olives
Nature, nature...she invited us and Cornelius insisted on picking a few prickly pears for the way.
The following days the prickly pears flew back and forth on the back seat. Unfortunately, we didn't know that the small fine spikes came loose and stuck to all the clothes...yes ahm...
A half hour drive and we stopped in a large field near Amghasse.
Rock Agama
The scolopenders were mostly found under flat cow dung.
Centipede
Moorish Tortoise
A few meters further and finally...
Buthus sp. / Scorpio sp.
Donkey
The sun was brutally hot for the first day of the search but it should be enough for today. Hard days are still ahead of us.
Landscape
After 6 hours and very late in the evening we arrived at our accommodation 40min from Azilal that Le panorama d'Ouzoud. One of the better places to stay. More on that in the next blog.