Kasbah Itran 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...

... Jewel of the Nile) and Ali Benhaddou with its famous Kasbah. We also drove through the rose growing area which was quite a surprise.
Ahmed shopped for some initial provisions - so that will be the meat from the hanging sheep carcasses then, plus fruit and vegetables. The snow looms on the mountain tops and a local shop is delighted that we want 36 bottles of water between the 4 of us.
A jolly first evening as we manage some sort of interaction ...

... 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.

... around for hours. I visited the Taoutirt Kasbah, which has been in tons of movies including Star Wars. I think it was supposed to be Tatooine. I accidentally snuck in without paying, the fault of me not speaking French. I was the called out on it by a guard who realized I was linguistically retarded and just let me go. I spent 18 hours of the past 24 with nothing to eat and only 4 hours of sleep. I still haven't gotten used to the time ...

... these essentials with us.We had been promised a hot meal on the flight but you had to buy sandwhiches at £6, coke was £2. I was pleased I had a malt loaf with me. The guy in front of us was reading something on the MDS so I said hello, he wasn't very chatty at all so I presumed he had trouble with English. We were 30minutes late flying at 12:30 for the 3.5 hour flight to Marakesh. It was only now I realised that the others were flying ...

... rental agency, we met a woman whose husband ran an agency in the desert where we were heading and we spoke to him on her cell phone. Although the rain had stopped, we drove though a lot of big puddles and mini lakes on our way. We had heard that there were some blocked roads but didn't think they'd be big obstacles until we saw what everyone was talking about. About 3 hours into the trip, we came to a huge river of ...

... flow of desert curious tourists tends to follow thecsame route, a similar approaching drought occurs with their tourist droughts. Tourists are snatched up by eager businessman in Marrakech before thryvarrive in Zagora or M'hamd, fast talking and fearmongering presuring travelers into scripted package deals before they get to meet the locals who truly understand the desert. Its a rude system where city folk sell ...

... lot of films. They were all made of polystyrene and wood and some were falling to bits, but it was very odd to see Egyptian and Tibetan sets in the middle of Morocco. In the afternoon we went to the Kasbah, which is a fortress used by the rulers put in place by the French in the 1930s. That's about all we know as there was no information whatsoever, but it was nice to wander round it. It looked like a big termites nest or a ...

... Lets just hope that I don't get a call from the production company trying to sue me. It is funny, the closest I have probably ever been to a major movie star is the furthest I have ever been from modern society. After leaving Ait Ben-Haddou we continued on. I found out that the city of Ouarzazate is pretty much Africa's version of Hollywood. There is a big studio here with nice hotels for stars to stay at. This region of Morocco I guess is easy for ...