Merzouga - Todra Gorge - Dades Gorge (260klms)

We left Merzouga around 11.00am yesterday after our magical night in the desert, driving back through Rissani to Erfoud before heading West along a high plateau of the Mid Atlas Mountains towards the amazing landscapes of the fertile Todra River valley. These sand cities look like something out of the bible..

After a lunchstop and a realisation that another member of our group (Wayne) might be succumbing to the dreaded (24 hour??) tummy bug we are drawing closer to the spectacular Todra Gorge, the highest, narrowest Gorge in Morocco with its rock formations known as "monkey toes".

The pic below is of a hotel/guest house (kasbah) at the base of the gorge - we noted that part of the building had been destroyed by a recent rock slide - a constant hazard! This gorge is very popular with crazy rock climbers.

For Wayne it must have seemed an impossibly long drive then through curving, winding roads to our overnight stop at the amazing Hotel Xaluca Dades. It is a large, fabulously exotic hotel overlooking the spectacular Dades Valley. We are met with some traditional Berber music.

The hotel's decor is African inspired. The rooms are in "glamorous rustic" style and the hotel's public spaces are dotted with huge African sculptures and art works. Jennie celebrates her recovery from the bug with a Hamman treatment and the fit ones amongst us enjoy a Casablanca beer at the bar (our first alcohol in a while). Rob is not feeling well however and he has a terrible night..his bug is a bad one.

A night in the desert

We were all looking forward to our camel ride and overnight stay in the desert dunes we could just glimpse from our Riad Nezha in Merzouga. Luckily Maxie and Jennie had recovered enough by late in the day to be able to join the ride.  With great excitement we started out with Omar our camel driver about 6.00pm on Tuesday evening.

After the first 10 minutes or so of holding on for grim life and getting used to the uneven gait of my trusty camel as it navigated the dunes, I started to relax a bit and enjoy this stunningly beautiful desert environment.

Everything is planned perfectly for us on this trip. We reached this perfect vantage point, just as the sun reached the perfect position to light our group (and Omar, the camel driver proved to be a very adept photographer)!

All the photos I took on the ride were rush jobs..I wasn't game to let go of the handlebars on the saddle for more than a nanosecond...

We reached our desert camp by about 7.00pm...and were greeted in great style with mint tea and delicate Moroccan petit fours by these wonderful men.

We are amazed at the opulence of our campsite. We are the only guests and we have our own tents, with comfortable beds.....

...... and flushing toilets and hot showers!!! 

We are served with a beautiful three course dinner.......the table set with beautiful tableware and linen. 

 ...and then a fire afterwards.......

 ....and more of the wonderful Gnaoua music we'd heard earlier in the day.....this is all so amazing!!

I was hoping to see sunrise over the desert this morning, but alas our tour agent let us down on this one...the day dawned too cloudy for us to see the sunrise today, unfortunately, but we got this great view of our campsite......

Rob and I were both sitting up on the dune above our campsite admiring the view when we see our morning coffee about to arrive (without even asking for it)!........

Rob took this pic of me just before another staff member brought some cushions for these chairs - so we would be more comfortable. Our friends ended up joining us for coffee too...an absolutely magical way to start the day!

Omar led our little camel train back from our campsite at around 9.00am. I felt much more relaxed on the way back and enjoyed the ride much more than the evening before. Jennie had taught us a good technique for saving our coccyx pressure points..very effective.

We all rated this an unforgettable experience in magical Morocco!

A day in the desert

Two of our party are not so good this morning.  We were warned not to eat the fresh salads served as entree to every restaurant meal here.  We all broke the rule yesterday and really enjoyed the fresh salad platters served at lunch on the long drive to Merzouga. Jennie and Maxie are paying the price today.  Jennie has decided to rest and Maxie is taking it very slowly.

I realise we are in the heart of Morocco in this region.  It is the home of Rachid's Berber people and also the home base of the Alaouit people from whom Morocco's current king traces his lineage.  We visited the Ksar (fortress) El Frida this morning, built in the 1600s for the Alaouit Sultan, his four wives and entourage of servants and slaves.  The Alaouit people, in turn, trace their lineage back to the Prophet Mohammed.

Descendants of the slaves of the court look after the fort to this day, maintaining it spare working order. The site's best income comes from film production companies when it is used as a film set.

A short visit to the gardens of the nearby mosque was a welcome respite from the heat and glare of this desert environment.

 We love dates - and it is date season here - they are ripening rapidly!

Next stop was back to the small town of Rassini to visit one of the biggest, busiest souks of the region. Rachid assures us it hasn't changed all that much since Medieval times!

Nothing about the date palm trees is wasted.  These baskets are woven from the leaves.

The meat hall was quite confronting - especially for Maxie fighting off her tummy upset. Rachid tells us that men are the meat shoppers because "they know everything about animals".

This is the "car" park for the Rissani Souk. It's a hard life in the desert for people - and especially for donkeys! 

Our next stop is at a village where a tribe of African people (former slaves in a past life) all live.  Here we were treated to an amazing performance of  traditional Gnoaua music (a form of Sufi music) - just another one of the amazing experiences we have been presented with on this tour. 

We had lunch in the same village - a form of African Calzone, rice and vegetables and mint tea with oranges and dates for dessert...beautiful!

We got talking to the guests at the next table (Israelis) and one of them kindly offered Maxie a big spoonful of cummin (a cure all for tummy upsets apparently).

I laughed to see how far the Trip Adviser tentacles have reached...this place is rated 5 stars!