Kasbah Ait Ben Moro 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...

... passes & ledges; I also lose count of the times we criss-cross the stream on the way up.
Ahmed continues to star with casseroles & soup (& pancakes/omelettes in the morning) but on Day 3 a goat finds its way to the pot & we are 'honoured' with barbequed offal in stomach/intestine lining. Day 4 inevitably brings goat casserole.
So we finally make the villages at Zawyat Oulmzi where there is a hostel we share with a Belgian school group.

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 ...

... was one of the most terrifying and amazingly beautiful trips I've had by bus. I am spending one night here and tomorrow I am going on a three day excursion into the desert and into the valley of a thousand kasbah's. I'm going with a hired driver, a French couple, and a Moroccan tourist. All of which speak French, but none speak English. It's going to be a long couple of days. I'm used to not being able to speak the local languages of ...

... rumours go on as someone asked me about the film a few days later! Slight panic until Sam tuned up as no one else in the queue looked like they were doing the race. Sarah from Best of Morocco had said this flight was for Facing Africa runners, what she meant was those she couldn't fit on the other flight. 5 of us in total. I convinced Sam to jump the queue and check in with me so we could sit together. Her ticket had been canclled so ...

Ouarzazate in itself is not a very interesting town. But because of its location, it is great as a jumping off point for excursions into both the sahara and picturesque gorges, two trips we wanted to take. We arrived on an unusually rainy and cold day. We had no idea how we would do these little excursions; busses didn't really go where we wanted and renting a car was too expensive. We were intent on meeting some people ...

... handler, we were heading away to Quarzazate then on to Ait Ben Haddou.... or were we? We have noticed that it is better to travel by bus overland because in a hire car or plane you miss being close to the people of the country and seeing how they really operate. Always just as buses leave, there seems to be a scuffle or brawl break out or somebody freaking out. Remember the guywith the axe? This time we think someone had snuck onto the bus with no ticket and because the seats ...

The contrast between the Draa valley, to the South-East of Ouarzazate, and the road to Agadir rrom Ouarzazate is striking. The Draa valley, marked with it's conflict betwwen inherited traditions and culture and the drive for tourism creates a tension innthe inhabitants that is missing entirely in both the stretched out miles of argan hills and the hundreds of acres of industrial citrus fields to the East. When you ...

Hello from Ouarzazate, movie capital of Morocco. We arrived the day before yesterday after a long and spectacular 5 hour bus ride over the mountains. The roads were winding and the drops were sheer, but thankfully mostly on the other side of the road. The bus was absolutely packed to the gills, and we were glad to get to Ouarzazate. On the way in we passed some of the film sets. A lot of Hollywood films have been made here, including ...

... more reason to return with out it. One of the best parts about the trip through the mountains was not just the huge peaks towering over me but the small Berber villages and tribes along the way. At one point we topped out at about 6,000 FT which is probably the highest I have ever been on foot. The trip through the High Atlas took about 5 hours at which time we arrived at Ait-Ben-Haddou about 40 miles outside of Ouarzazate. This is Morroco's most ...