Kenzi Saghro Tinerhir

Our home in Todra Gorge was beautiful, surrounded by lush greenery. Nearly everyone was completely lazy and seduced by the swimming pool. Only three of us were willing to do the five hour trek in the gorge! So we went with a guide, Aziz. It was not that difficult, and the scenery was impressive. There wasn't much of a path though, so I am glad we had a guide. We learned that there was a tourist missing somewhere in the gorge, who had been hiking by himself.

The best part ...

... this place has been used in several movies including Gladiator. As we pull up in the town entrance the rain temporarily stops. There was a muddy track that took us all down to a normally dry river. Due to the rain it was just above ankle depth. Some of the enterprising locals had bought their donkeys to the river in an attempt to extort the tourists by charging 10 dirham ($1) to cross without getting their feet wet. Not much takers from our group, Tamara was the only ...

... this tiny little 1 man dome tent with 10 huge tents filled with girls (and a couple of guys of course). We also happened to park the truck right in front of it, so the occupants (who were not home at the time of camp setup) would probably arrive thinking that their tent had been consumed. We felt bad but to be honest, its their fault for choosing to put their tent smack bang in a big area when they should have stuck to the outsides. Typical. We were all waiting and ...

... over rocks should happen another day. This day, it rained as soon as we got to the climb site, and we waited in a cafe for the rain to stop or for a ride to take us back to Tinehrir. It finally did stop, and we realized that we had enough time for one climb each before we had to leave. The two passengers on my trip went first, because they were the tourists who wouldn't be back for a while. I went last, because ...

... was fortunate, but still a chill in the air. We stopped again at Rissani to visit the colourful weekly market. The people here were quite unfriendly and we didn't feel at all comfortable. We also went to the animal market but I didn't stay long, it was too upsetting. Nobody was keen to linger in Rissani so we drove away , leaving the southern desert behind us and followed an ancient route along the southern slopes of the Atlas mountains ...

... the end of it, we arrive to the mouth of a 300m high gorge, a famous climbing region. Agains all the odds, it's actually possible to drive through it! After about 500m the gorge becomes a just a very steep valley, but still it's pretty magnificient. The road goes on and on, until it is suddenly flushed away by (now dry) river. OK, let's see how well Dacia deals with jeep tracks;). Although it's exciting to drive on eroded roadway and through the ...

... I was having them pose (after I had already paid them each a dirham). Little cheats! I don't necessarily object to paying for photos of people since I suppose they have the rightful ownership of their images and in poorer countries it can significantly supplement low incomes, but doing so still seems to make beggars out of local people. I thought I was on the home stretch when I was back on the paved road and entered the winding ...

... back to Tinehir to eat. As we waited a man started to talk to us. He was with his family and his mum had made some cake which they couldn't finish. They offered it too us. That's what Morocco has been like. Some really lovely, innocent experiences followed by some ******, in your face creepo being aggressive and ruining your day. We found a place only locals were eating in and then went to buy our bus tickets. We decided to go ...

... areas is making life a little easier here, albeit these changes are occurring slowly. Morocco has also gained the favour of the US when it joined the War on Terrorism, probably as a result to the Casablance bombing in 2003. The current king is also viewed as progressive because he has only one wife and she is an educated woman (a computer engineer). Like many of the places we have visited in Morocco, it is mainly the Berber who live in the village and work ...

... or credit cards). So, here's us with about £5 to go to a tourist place. There are 3 parts to Fes: the new "French" town, the old medina and the new medina (by new read 13th Century....) Arrive at the new town and get lost (don't ask someone or they'll want some of our precious money..), no bank will change our traveller's cheque (we have to wait in a queue for 15 minutes at every bank to be told this...), and eventually find the old medina. This is where everyone tells us we'll ...