Tichka Salam 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 ...

... 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.

... 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.

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... that Abdul took us to was upstairs and freezing and we couldn't really find any vegetarian options, so Mike, AJ and I decided to try a small local cafe across the road. We had the best meal - soup, freshly cooked chips (not like the greasy, day old ones we've had previously) and the best fresh orange juice (so good we had 2 glasses each). We wandered through a local market with antiques as well as pottery etc then back in the bus to visit ...

... Tallulah named one of the camels we rode in the desert James Carlock, her boyfriend! Here are some Cool Camel Facts that I learned: COOL CAMEL FACTS 1. In Morocco, camels have one hump and are actually called dromedaries (but they still call them camels). 2. Camels have four stomachs where they store food to chew later. 3. Camels can survive 10 days without water and 40 days without food. 4. A camel's hump contains fat and water and other ...

Currently in Ait Benhaddou on the south eastern fringe of the Atlas Mountains, about 30 clicks out of Ouarzazate - both places made famous for the use of their scenery in blockbuster movies (Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia to name a couple). Although Ouarzazate is more obvious in it's monetary gain from this, Ait Benhaddou has remained a quiet little sanctuary, once a stronghold to control the caravan routes through this region in the 11th century, the kasbah and the village is ...

... I should pay for not stopping at some place and rather stopping in front of them. Hmm. After telling them my nationality, they set the fine to 100dh. I use all my French and after saying something like "It's my first roadblock, pleeease" they finally let us go for free. About one hour of driving later, there comes another one. This time they have a radar (or a imitation of one;)) and say I went 80kmh and that's only for 400dh, since I'm from the poor eastern Europe ...

... his friends house for dinner that night. So we went first in the afternoon for tea and looked at some of the rugs that there family makes. Of course trying to sell them, one of the other couples bought one. That day in the afternoon around 4pm the guy took all of us to a local Hammam(bathhouse). These bathhouses are a weekly event for the moroccan men and women and is a place of social gatherings. The girls went to oneside and the guy to the other. The ...