Off to the Desert

It was an early start today with the alarm going at 6.15am. Our guide was meeting us at 8am and we hadn't finished packing yet!

At 8am precisely our guide, Rashid, arrived. We grabbed our things and off we went.

The first task was to get out of Marrakech. Not far from the main square we saw one of the tourist horse and carts in trouble, collapsing onto the horse reined up next to it. Two men were trying to push it back to standing but the horse looked very skinny and I think it was in serous trouble. I'm not sure they will have managed to get it upright again :-(

By the time we reached the boundaries of the city things were immediately a much calmer albeit odd sight. The edge of the city was a perfect line with what looked like wasteland stretching from the edge of the city to the main and only road out of Marrakech towards the desert town of Zagora, with the highest point racing up to 2260m. Anything that needs transporting (including baby donkeys!) uses this road.

The narrow, windey road goes through the Atlas mountains, along which our driver Salid drove very fast and what felt slightly irraticly, although he did assure us that he knows the roads very well! This unfortunately didn't help Stu's car sickness :-(

Last month many parts of the road were swept away in the floods, yet it only took them 4 days to get it operational again, albeit some repairs and improvements were ongoing when we drove past.

The mountains gradually changed colour as we went further along the road. Near Marrakech they are very orange, then they became gold, then gray, then black and back to orange again. Most houses are made of mud bricks and blend in with the mountains surrounding them, changing colour with the mountain earth.

After several hours we turned off the main road towards the famous Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah. Films such as Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and the Game of Thrones series have been filmed here.

The road to the kasbah was much narrower than the main road and there was a distinct difference in who rules the road here. In Marrakech it's the mopeds. Here it's the taxis! When there's oncoming traffic they just sit in the middle of the road and wait for the other cars, trucks and mopeds to move out of their way, onto the dirt either side of the road. Mopeds and cyclists out here seem to have the lowest priority with our driver honking the horn each time he saw one instructing them to get out of the way. Those that didn't almost got run off the road!

In the newer town next to the kasbah we stopped briefly to order lunch then continued into the old town to look around. Only around 10 families still live in the old town, most have moved across the river to the new town.

We walked up to the highest point in the kasbah giving beautiful views of the surrounding city and the Atlas mountains.
In the kasbah we saw lots of pictures in muted colours. Admiring these a shy teenager showed us how they were done. They paint with green tea on the paper then 'burn' it to make the muted colours suddenly burst into life. Given its like painting with invisible ink is amazing the amount of detail they put into the pictures.

For lunch we had to cross over the river to the new town. The locals had helpfully laid sacks of rocks across the river so you can hop over, hopefully without getting wet feet. The bags were often uneven and a bit of a stretch between them (at least for me!). However, both of us made our way across safe and dry. Phew!

After lunch we set off back to the main road to continue our journey into the desert. On the way we saw several traditional nomad tents, with their owners tending to their goats a few kilometres further down the road. Every few weeks they move their camp to a new 'green' area for their livestock to feed, ensuring nowhere becomes too barren. At the moment they are spoilt for choice as most of the desert seems green due to the unusual heavy rain fall last month.

By the time we drove through Zagora it was late afternoon. Families, always men and women separate, were sitting outside their front doors catching the last rays of the sun making the town a very colourful place to drive through.

Finally at about 5.30pm, with the sun setting, we arrived at our final destination. Well almost. We were still a 30 minute camel ride away! We each got on our camels which we immediately named Tim and Geoffrey. Stu had a very noisy baby camel that moaned most of the way and I had a very tranquil adult. During the ride we found out they were actually called Hoffhoff and Hitash (baby), so our names were pretty close!

The camel ride, although uncomfortable was quite an experience with the camels gently plodding towards the camp under the beautiful night sky. Thousands of stars were visible making the constellations hard to distinguish from the rest of the night sky.

Tonight we were staying in a traditional nomadic tent. On arrival we were given Berber whisky, basically strong green tea, mint and lots of sugar. I found it too sweet for my taste but Stu loved it, drinking 4 (small) cups.

After dinner there was a camp fire and traditional (drum) music which was surprisingly enjoyable. Before they started they had to warm up the drums by the fire.

At first the fire was small, but with the addition of some palm leaves the fire leapt to three times its height, with the palm burning hot and fast.

After admiring the night sky one last time at the edge of the camp, we found our tent and settled down for the night.

[photos to follow when we get a better internet connection]