We Went Looking for an Ostrich Park in Morocco. This Is What We Found Instead

One of the things we loved most about traveling through Morocco in our campervan was how often completely random decisions turned into the best adventures.

This was definitely one of them.

We were staying near M’Hamid El Ghizlane, in the south of Morocco, when we spotted something interesting on Google Maps.

Ostrich Park.

That was pretty much all the information we needed.

We had no idea what kind of place it was, whether there was actually anything to see there, or what exactly an ostrich park in the middle of the Moroccan desert was supposed to look like.

But it was on the map.

So obviously, we decided to go.

Driving Into the Middle of Nowhere

When people imagine the Sahara, they often picture endless golden sand dunes.

But huge parts of the desert in Morocco look completely different.

The landscape around M’Hamid is vast, dry and rocky, with hard clay ground, stones, occasional acacia trees and mountains far away on the horizon. It feels empty in a way that is difficult to understand until you are actually there.

And our mysterious Ostrich Park was not exactly around the corner.

We drove for tens of kilometres through this landscape, following the tracks and Google Maps deeper into what increasingly felt like the middle of nowhere.

There were no villages. No tourist attractions. Not much of anything, really.

But the drive itself was incredible.

We saw camels wandering freely through the desert. The landscape seemed to stretch forever. Every now and then there would be a lonely tree, mountains in the distance or another view that made us stop and remember that yes, we were actually driving our own campervan through Africa.

At some point, the destination almost stopped mattering.

The drive itself had already been worth it.

But we still wanted to find those ostriches.

And Then We Saw Them

Eventually, somewhere in that enormous empty landscape, we noticed something in the distance.

Two very tall birds.

Ostriches.

Just walking around.

We kept driving towards the location marked on Google Maps, expecting that at some point we would see the actual park.

A fence, maybe.

A building.

A sign.

Someone selling tickets.

Anything.

Nope.

There was absolutely nothing.

No fence. No entrance. No buildings. No people.

Just an enormous open desert.

And two ostriches.

Apparently, we had arrived.

The Ostriches Had Other Plans

We stopped the campervan to have a look at them from a distance.

Except the ostriches were not particularly interested in staying at a distance.

They saw us.

And started coming towards us.

Fast.

Now, seeing an ostrich somewhere far away in the desert is one thing. Having a full-sized ostrich confidently walking straight towards your campervan is something else entirely.

These two were incredibly curious and completely unafraid of us.

Within moments they were right next to the van, inspecting everything.

They walked around it.

They looked through the windows.

They came right up to the open door and seemed very interested in finding out what was inside.

At one point it genuinely felt like they might simply invite themselves into the campervan.

They were friendly.

They were curious.

They were also enormous.

And while they clearly weren’t afraid of us, we were perhaps slightly less confident about them.

We also had our dog Flēra with us, and there was absolutely no discussion about whether she should come outside to meet our new friends.

She stayed safely inside the van.

Some introductions are better skipped.

So… Where Was the Ostrich Park?

We still don’t know.

Maybe that was the Ostrich Park.

Maybe there was something else somewhere nearby that we completely missed.

Maybe Google Maps had simply sent us on a very long drive through the Moroccan desert to meet two extremely sociable ostriches.

Honestly, we didn’t care.

We had driven tens of kilometres through an incredible landscape, seen camels wandering through the desert, experienced a part of Morocco we probably never would have visited otherwise, and somehow ended up standing beside our campervan with two ostriches trying to make friends with us.

There was no ticket office.

No souvenir shop.

No fence.

Not even a sign.

Just us, our campervan and two ostriches in the middle of nowhere.

And somehow that was much better than the ostrich park we had imagined.

The Best Places Aren’t Always Places

This is one of the reasons we loved traveling around Morocco by campervan.

Some of our favourite experiences weren’t famous attractions or places we had carefully planned to visit.

They happened because we saw something strange on a map and thought:

Why not?

Sometimes Google Maps leads you to a beautiful viewpoint.

Sometimes it leads you down a road you probably shouldn’t have taken.

And sometimes it sends you tens of kilometres into the Moroccan desert to find an ostrich park that doesn’t seem to exist…

…only to introduce you to two ostriches wandering freely through the African landscape.

I’d take that over a normal tourist attraction any day.

And if you ever find an Ostrich Park somewhere near M’Hamid El Ghizlane on Google Maps?

Well.

Go and have a look.

Just maybe keep your dog in the campervan.