We left Dar Chamaa without a dip in the pool, but had a nice buffet breakfast to get us fuelled up for the day ahead either way. Today we will be doing 300km of overland traveling and arriving for the night at Toudra Gorges...
Day 2: Skoura- Valley of Roses- Bo taghrarate Valley- Dades Gorges- Tinight- Toudra Gorges
After breakfast you will drive by the palm groves of Skoura, pause at one of the famous Kasbah Ameridil - tour the site, before you continue through the Rose valley and Kalaa Magouna. Off-road to Berber nomad homes for a cup of tea and on to the pleasant Dades Valley. Return to the main road and this time head to Tinghir and Toudra Gorges.At 8:30am Mohamid was there waiting for us and heard calling "yala"..."let's go" in Berber...something I soon realized we would be saying a lot over the next 4 days. Ali, our amazing driver had the SUV spick and span since our muddy day yesterday, and we headed off with local Berber music playing. First stop was to buy some candies to give to the small Nomad children we would see later in the day...and what a treat it turned out to be.
Our first touring destination was Skoura and the Kasbah Amridil...one of the most prestigious of the area and shown on their 50 dirham bill. When we turned off the main road...the roads here have been amazing and very clean in most parts...and headed into what looked like someone's field. As we went deeper inside we eventually ended up driving on the river bed...very strange to be driving where there's typically water.
Mohamid gave us a tour of the Kasbah...after some mint tea of course! What incredible views all around with the green palm trees, red Kasbah, snow capped High Atlas Mountains and the rocky river bed. Definitely took some photos from up there...so peaceful.
Next stop...the patisserie for some treats. We had a nice chat with the momen in the shop and left with some interesting sweets...especially the little fish!
Outside Skoura we passed through the Rose Valley. This is the area where roses are grown and cultivated for use in a variety of cosmetics like face and hand creams, perfumes, rose water and even rose oil for cooking. We did a quick tour with a lady at a shop in the area and sampled a few of the products...of course I left with a few samples myself. In the summer there is a huge Rose Festival with people coming from all over to celebrate...would have loved to see all the roses in bloom.
Past this area about 30 minutes we once again left the main highway and ventured into the mountains where the Berber Nomad's lived. This was by far the most spectacular place I have ever been. The road into the village was narrow and unpassable, and kids were heading to school as it was around noon.
Along the way Lisa and Ali were handing out candies to the kids...very obvious that this was a typical routine of Ali's based on their reaction to him coming.
We eventually got out to take some photos and two young girls came up to see us for candy. They were very shy and did not speak the language. After Ali and Mohamid chatted with them, we took some photos and then headed off...waving goodbye to these beautiful little girls who had big smiles on their faces.
The next two hours were fantastic, surreal and primitive. Mountain ranges all around, changing terrain and rich earth colours of browns and reds, blues skies and the most rugged "path" I have ever witnessed...only 4WD aloud here! To say the least this drive was truly magical.
We came across some of the Nomad's transporting goods by donkey, hikers walking along the mountain path and even cyclists...a crazy feat if you ask me. Thanks goes out to Ali who was an incredible driver, able to manoeuvre all the twists and turns that came his way.
At one point we stopped to visit a Nomad family and enjoy some mint tea. These people live with very little and build their houses inside the rock like caves.
They had small farm animals such as goat, and made carpets to sell for supplies. The woman of the house made us some tea...she had the most inquisitive little boy. After we thanked for for our tea we were then shown their living quarters. I tried to take a photo of one of the young girls and she was shy, so we simply smiled at one another before departing and thanked them for their generosity.
The next thirty minutes were spent trying to take photos of this spectacular area without banging our heads as we weaved back and forth in the vehicle...we eventually found out we made our own road to get to the highway, so no wonder it was like being on an all terrain route the entire time!
It was about 3:00pm when we arrived at the Blue Ciel for lunch. Here we had tagine and coffee...Man they eat lunch late in Morocco. Before we left the restaurant Mohamid played the Tomtom drums and serenaded us with an Arabic song...great way to finish up our meal...along with a cup of tea of course...I think this was our 3 cup today so far!
On our final leg of the trip we passed through various regions and stopped to take photos from time to time. Everywhere you look there was beautiful scenery, palm trees flanked against the rich red clay of the houses and kasbahs, mountains and winding roads.
At Todra Gorges..a 300m deep fault...we took a quick walk around to view the immense walls of solid rock protruding into the sky. This is a very popular place for rock climbing and even though it was 6:00pm, there were still people climbing the walls.
The wind had picked up and it was cold so we took some shots and headed to our guesthouse, the Dar Ayour. A colourful place filled with Berber touches and run by the most friendly and welcoming staff. Tonight we had to repack for our camel overnight ride tomorrow so we got ourselves organized and found some heavy blankets to settle in for the night...no heat in this place and it is cold!!!
Looking forward to and exciting day tomorrow of camel riding and seeing what interesting things Mohamid will find for us to do.
Until then and Shukran - thank you (Arabic)...for following along with us on our little journey.
Lisa & Lisa
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