Belere Ouarzazate

... a battle ship, so we just got the fossil, which we're going to stick on the wall in the head. <br> <br>After heading over the High Atlas pass at 2400 mtrs, we arrived at Ait Benhaddou, which is famous for it's 12 century Kasbar, which has been used for the filming of Jesus of Nazareth, Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia. The whole place is built of mud bricks. Which don't appear to be kiln fired, there aren't ...

Just quick entry to set the map pin. Suffice I lucked out and nabbed a guide in Merzouga who just happened to be headed to Marrakech to pick up 3 Spanish clients to guide them on a 10 day tour of Morocco.<br><br> Thus, instead of struggling w/ mind-boggling taxi negotiations to navigate to Quarzazate (about 8 hrs. from Merzouga), I ...

... contests - goat herding involves lots of stone throwing.<br>Some firewood gathering is involved &amp; the Berbers are into bread making each evening. There are other nomads on the move (some with tourists) and we get the invite to tea at a random cave complete with smoky fire; pretty soon if it's not dusty it smells of smoke.<br>Quite a lot of the trek is on dry river beds &amp; that is not the easiest - it's much more interesting on the ...

Ait Ben Haddou is one of the oldest Kasbahs in Morocco. Onthe way to the hotel we saw goats on the side of a maountain. And from the roof of the hotel I took pictures of the kasbah and the neighbors garden. We met 2 German girls the next morning and gave them a ride to Casablanca. They were lots of fun.

... to Ouarzazate. I wondered why Helen looked so blank when I mentioned the bus ticket last night. We had forms to fill in at the passoport control and long queues. We got our bags fine and went through. We found our driver and got money changed as the others came though. Neil from the Isleof Man and David from Ipswitch, he's climbed Everest, not quite to the top. Not sure what the other guy was called. He sat in the front and took ...

... side of the bus announcing it to be the Sahara Voyage which kind of made you feel you were on a good bus but it was all words. There was a women breastfeeding a large child behind us so we had to keep our seats upright and the people in front of us had theirs back as is their right. We were squashed. A guy had a go at Nadine for having her knees exposed because the legs are considered private here. Oohhh..... the knees.... scary bits. We spilled ot at the Quazazate bus ...

Today morning we quickpack our things and leave for the Sixt office, where a silver Dacia Logan 1.5 diesel already awaits us. Again, the Sixt guy Said shows himself in very good light. So last breath and let's dive into local traffic. Frankly, seeing the traffic from sidewalks and thinking about driving in it is not so nice feeling...but once in it, it's not so bad (in daylight;)). We encircle Marrakech and drive through increasingly more beautiful landscape towards ...

Issam was going to work that morning and had promised to wake me up before he left, because I needed to be at the car rental place early, to take advantage of the day - but he didn't. And I didn't have my cellphone, since it got lost in Casablanca, and therefore no personal alarm clock. So I didn't wake up until at 12:30. I did wake up earlier at one point, but Issam was still sleeping, and as he had to be at work at 6am, the time must have been less than that, so I ...

... After enjoying a delicious lunch in a tiny cafe we took a side trip to Ait Benhaddou....one of the best preserved kasbahs and definitely our favorite stop of the day. This kasbah was used to film Lawrence of Arabia, Jesus of Nazareth, and Gladiator....to name a few of the 20 movies set here. A local gentleman allowed us entry through his home and then because Benjamin was speaking to him in Arabic....we had to have tea ...

... Kasbah which is used in several Hollywood movies. Scenes from Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia and other films were shot in the surrounding area. I guess I had perfect timing because our driver advised us that the movie "Babel" was being filmed that day. Well, he was right. I got to watch a few war scenes shot with lots of extras riding around on horses. The movie is with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchet so I took a few zoomed in shots and recorded some of ...