Ibis Moussafir Ouarzazate

... interiorior of Morocco - in a nice new Toyota 4x4. We sped though Todra Gorge, the Dades, Valley of the Roses et al, and landed for the night at a lovely little riad overlooking the city. Had a beer (along w/ my Muslim guide!) on the rooftop terrace, dinner, and then set off for Marrakech the next morning.

Will fill in the blanks/post pics later...

... are based around some (vaguely) nearby mountain streams and areas for the animals so that the length of treks do vary. We are of course in the 'middle of nowhere' so you have to relax in camp with the bed rolls & some rocks to lounge around on.
One day the stream is full enough for the cold water hair wash and clean up, otherwise it's mainly wet wipes & the bush for the toilet stop. Impromtu English/Berber lessons continue as do the stone ...

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 ...

... 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.

... to those of us from countries where there are such things as sand bags and alternative routes. But in Morocco, the dammage done by a day or so of rain is fixable only by Allah and we were at his whim. While brainstorming about our next course of action we were approached by a man who got our attention by with a "Hey! You are the two French and two Americans who are going to the dessert with Hassan. Abdo is waiting for ...

... at a bank so Mike could change some money - luckily he was able to change our ripped and stuck back together $100 note, so he came out smiling. Ate some of our stuff in the bus as we drove along. Scenery was just beautiful, desert like landscape with stunning, snow covered mountains in the distance. Lunch stop was Ourzazate the movie capital of Morocco where movies like Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Babel have been filmed. The ...

... helped people who had a disability learn a new craft - very interesting and I bought a little decorative mini tagine pot. We drove past the Atlas movie studios - Morocco's version of Universal studios and saw some of the movie sets, the Mummy, Kingdom of Heaven and Gladiator were all filmed partly here. Finally we arrived in Ait Benhaddou around 6pm - most of the others went for the walk up to see the kasbah on the ...

... go along the road otherwise. Soon, we pass Tizi n Tichka pass at 2260 meters above see - high, but still about 2km lower than Troubkal mountain;). We break the car every 2 minutes to take photos, but our first real stop is fairytale kasbah (stonghold) of Telouet [10dh]. To get there, we pick up a young guide at the crossroads (of which we thought he wants just a ride) and drive a 20km rally through very nice nature. The crumbling kasbah really strikes us - so ...

There is not much that I want to say about this place. It was a blur because I was tired from being on the road so much. This is a film town where the most recognized is Lawrence of Arabia. We did visit the renovated Kasbah Taourirt. It supposed to belong to a wealthy merchant who had 4 wives. Each wife had a tower (with lookout) on each corner of the kasbah. The favourite wife (I ...

... in this mess, that these local false guides had created. We all got into the cab and I locked my door right away, having a bad feeling about this situation, the others locked there side. The false guides then wanted us to pay up front, and we asked to speak to the driver and then the driver and this false guide started arguing and pushing each other. Luckily our cabby was a bigger older man and pushed the guy away. After this the false guide was ...