Le Meridien Berbere Palace Ouarzazate

... trees here for the wood for the kilns ? Anyhow it would appear that when it rains the mud bricks - well get muddy, so I think it's helped that the film sets help keep the place uptogether. We stayed at an OK but slightly dodgy mud brick hotel. First thing in the morning, 7.00 am we did the trek up through the Kasbar (read fortified town or village) to the Keep at the very top. It was a great time for this ...

... whizzed south across the 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.

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

Ait Ben Haddou is one of the oldest Kasbahs in Morocco. Onthe way to the hotel we saw goats on the side of a maountain. And from the roof of the hotel I took pictures of the kasbah and the neighbors garden. We met 2 German girls the next morning and gave them a ride to Casablanca. They were lots of fun.

... High Atlas and to Ouarzazate. Snow is getting closer and closer, vegetation vanishes, colors of the ground keeps on changing and changing and the road gets more and more winding and having quite steep valleys below. The road is lined with people offering fake gems, but there are some very good places to shop some berber products and fossils as well (some of them really cheap). Since we want to have a good karma we take some hitchhikers, which try to get home and had ...

... back to sleep. But apparently Issam overslept, because later he got up and went to work, I laid there and relaxed for a little bit and then got up when I noticed Ibrahim watching me "sleep". Creepy. At that point I realized what time it was, and was in deed NOT happy. I literally jumped into my clothes, grabbed my bag and left - but Ibrahim ran in front of the exit door, and asked me to stay. I told him no, but he insisted. I put on my angry face and pulled the door ...

... was a real treat...even though we were sipping tea tooooo hot to drink in air too hot to breathe! The view in every direction is superb and we keep pinching ourselves that we are really here looking at this. Tomorrow we have another long day of travelling in a land rover through the Dades Gorge to Merzouga where we get to ride camels out to the dunes....off to another adventure..ensha'llah (if God wills)....Bessalama (goodbye)

... 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 ...

High Atlas - mountain pass - fantastic scenery. Greenery & palm trees on Marrakech side, as we climbed higher it became more barren & snow-capped, with beautiful red-brown rock. Top of the pass - grey stoney ground On the other side - real desert landscape, rocky, bright green areas only near the river Stayed night in Ouarzazate