Karam Palace Hotel 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 ...

... contests - goat herding involves lots of stone throwing.
Some firewood gathering is involved & 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.
Quite a lot of the trek is on dry river beds & that is not the easiest - it's much more interesting on the ...

... with our guide who wants to charge double for this unwanted service. In another valley there are roses growing. They make rose water from the roses which are grown around the edge of other crops. There are lots of old kasbahs in the area, many in ruins and we wander through one of them. Its dark and cool inside as the clay walls are very thick and the windows small.

... city was actually one of my best. I had to get a taxi to the bus station (as you can tell I was thrilled at that idea). I hailed a cab and asked the driver how much. He just asked me to get in, turned on the meter and only charged me a fraction of what I expected. I was so surprised I paid him double to thank him. I left on the bus today and arrived in Ouarzazate. It's towards the south which meant we had to cross the amazing Atlas mountains ...

... finished her packing. Thursday the 26th of March 2009. Train from Woking to Gatwick.We finally came up with a name for the tent. OCD short for Operation Certain Death. A fella that Helen just starting to see calls the MDS that so we thought it was appropriate.We met Myles, Amy, Jaco, Johnathan along the way at Clapham. Farewell to the others as I had a different flight to catch. Helen had joked it was to meet my film crew, amazing ...

... at the Hotel Palmerie" We had been spotted by friends of the owner of the dessert agency, the guy we had spoken to on the phone. Being that we were stuck at this road block we didn't have any thing better to do so we decided to head to the Hotel Palmerie. Although we didn't know exactly where it was or what we were going to do there we hoped it would get us where we wanted. In'sh'Allah. We got more than we bargained for.

... a guide book for a change although we hope we are not missing anything. So women, travellers and no guide book- a poor combination in Morocco. A challenge for us though. It is amazing how much better you feel after a cold Coca-Cola bottle drank in secret (because of Ramadan), even if you dont like to endorse the Coca-Cola company. After the coke, an hour at the internet cafe, a festy squat toilet break and handing over the 10dirham backpack protection tip or the ...

... on a winding road through the Tichka Pass at an altitude of 2,260 metres (7,415 feet). Expect views that are nothing short of breathtaking. See Ouarzazate, named after a Berber term meaning 'without noise' and relax over lunch. Visit the fortress Kasbah of Taourit before you make your way back to Marrakech, stopping at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ksar Aït Benhaddou on the way. "

... on our way again by 4pm. We arrived in Ouarzazate just after 5pm, where Rashid found a great hotel for us, and once again bargained for a great price. We were beginning to get worried that he was going to ask us to pay him extra for all the costs he was saving us. He then took us to a nice restaurant for dinner looking out over a famous Kasbah. By the time we got to bed that night, we were exhausted and fell straight to sleep. Lucky for us we were

... be snow on the mountain still even though it was spring. I guess i'll have to return another time in the future which doesn't bother me at all. We stopped a few times for photo ops High in the mountains. I almost feel like I would do it no justice if I tried to explain what it looked like. I might just save it for the pictures and even that won't offer any justice. I took a lot of pictures and at times felt I was strapped down by the camera. All ...