Chicken legs and a hammam experience
Trip Start
Feb 07, 2009
1
29
41
Trip End
Mar 19, 2009
Todra Gorge,
Morocco
Sunday, March 8, 2009
At one of our rest stops, Aziz the guide was telling us about how Tom Cruise didn't really do any climbing himself in the opening scenes of MI2, he was just standing there and the angle of the camera made it look like he was dangling from a cliff. Apparently his legs were shaking when he was out there, and Aziz called him "chicken legs". So from then on, every time anyone in the group didn't want to do something or had second thoughts etc, we called them a Tom Cruise!
We walked a short distance to a Berber nomad camp where we met a 76 year old man, his young 2nd wife and 2 children (4 years and 18 months). He made us tea with Lemon Thyme which grows up on the mountains. We stayed there about 30 mins, then started the climb down to the village below which we could see as a tiny speck was below us. Going down was much easier (like the sand dunes), just had to be careful where to put your feet. I slipped and landed on my bottom once. There were quite a few wild dogs which followed us up and down, they kill the goats so the guide was trying to get rid of them.
The dog followed us
We all had a go at throwing rocks at them, most of the time they would head off for a few minutes but come straight back again. Sharon had an encounter with them when she stopped for a toilet break. Arriving at the village, we walked through dark, narrow alleyways then up several flights of dark, uneven stairs to a room where we stayed for a delicious lunch prepared by a local family - soup and Berber pizza. Met up with AJ who had done a short walk in the morning. Mike led us through some stretching exercises. After sitting and eating my legs were really sore and tired and it took some effort to get up and walk downstairs again.
Got our bus back to the hotel again, then rested up till 3pm, when we headed out to the hammam. About a 20 mins drive to the hammam (communal bath house) at the nearby town. We paid at the entrance and the boys (Mike, AJ and English Mike) went in one side while Sharon, Sandra and I went in the other. And what a culture shock! We really felt like tourists and it was pretty uncomfortable, especially when we were asked (with hand gestures) to remove our bras. Poor Sharon was already hating the experience. We were led into the 1st room which is the hottest and the woman gestured for us to sit on the floor. She then brought out big buckets of water, loofahs and the funny smelling soap they use. She washed each of us in turn then gave us a rinse by pouring a bucketful of water over us. She gave us more soap and gestured for us to wash ourselves with this. When we rinsed and had been in there for what seemed like hours, she gestured for us to follow her into the next room (thankfully a little cooler). She gave me a scrub with a loofah and made horrified clucking noises at the dead skin that was coming off. In spite of lying on the hard tile floor in only undies and having to twist and turn in all sorts of positions when she wanted to scrub a different body area, I was actually enjoying the vigorous body scrubbing and massage that she did. When she had finished the 3 of us, we left and got dressed in the change room then bolted out to the bus where the boys were waiting. Exchanged stories on the way back.
Dinner at the hotel (more stories and laughs about the experience) then early to bed. It had been a big day!
