I Roccha Ouarzazate

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.

Thus, instead of struggling w/ mind-boggling taxi negotiations to navigate to Quarzazate (about 8 hrs. from Merzouga), I verily whizzed south across ...

... the family and get the tents up whilst Ahmed produces that Lamb Casserole with soup.
The goats live pretty much by daylight so it's an early night before the 5.30 dawn chorus.
The next 6 days then follow the pattern of early starts and trekking up to 6 hours and a lazy afternoon waiting for the goats to catch up. We climb to 3200 metres & experience the temperature swings at that height as well as some residual winter snow.
Overnight ...

The drive from Taroudannt gets more and more barren and the road deterioates to a single lane of bitumen and becomes more mountainous. Taxis and trucks play chicken with Terry so we spend a fair it of time in the dust. Fortunately there is not much traffic. We are staying out of the town again in a kasbah, which is a large house with four towers built around a courtyard ...

... just took a shower and I am having my clothes washed which is definetely good. Only problem is the only thing I have to wear until tomorrow morning when they are done is my bathing suit and my glow in the dark Barnum and Baily circus T shirt. I am sure I wont stand out. Finally onto the setback of my trip right now. Turns out theres a bit of a strike going on. And by that I mean the entire countrys ...

... of photos. The driver took us around the outskirts of the city we were didn't get an essence of it really. The building looked beautiful thoughtd adobe walls. Soon we were heading out towards the mountain. I presume the Atlas. We were the wet side of them as there's was so much agriculture, this disppeared as we headed up to the high pass close to the snow line. Two stops one to buy water the other, toilet. It got dark quickly at 19:00.

... brown mud rushing over the road. There were cars parked on either side but it was impassable. We got out to survey the scene and take pictures. We started asking people how long they thought it would take to clear the road. The responses were varried but always with an in'sh'Allah (God willing) at the end. "Four hours, in'sh'Allah!" they said. "Maybe six, in'sh'Allah, or tomorrow in'sha'Allah!" This of course came as ...

... with desert landscapes and lots of roadside people action in all the little towns we passed. There were many completely veiled women in the muslim black robes and men working donkeys. Horse and cart is a popular way for people to get around in this area too. We admired crumbling kasbah ruins whilst keepingone eye on the taxi driver to make sure he wasnt nodding off to sleep as he drove. It was the middle of the day, hot and he is not allowed to eat or drink anything ...

... Giant, bouldered faces casting down ancient shadows and beckoning every serious rock climber from Spain to use the Semana Santa holiday scaling their features. 20km walk in the morning saw us in the village of Tamtattouchte, passing barren cliffs to the end of the gorge to be shown round this peaceful settlement that has only had the luxury of electricity and telephone lines since 2006. So far, splendifico! Tomorrow head for Goulmima....ensha'llaah!

... Morocco, after the past few days where we felt like we were on our own, suddenly there were bus loads of tourists around us. We had lunch in the gorge watching some climbers navigate their way high on the cliff face. We then jumped back in the car for trip to Ouarzazate. However after the road of a thousand Kasbahs, we came to road block. Rashid jumped out to check what the hold up was, and we discovered that the King was changing towns, and ...

... returned by way of camel to to our auberge for breakfast. It is basically bread everywhere we go with coffee and tea. We travelled through more desert scenery to Todra Gorge. The scenery I observed today was absolutely beautiful. Our hotel for tonight is the Hotel Taborile in an unbelievable setting with the gorge outside our door. Like Tiger Leaping Gorge, I have been spoilt once again!