Bright and early on August 19, we started our trip to the Erg Chebbi desert by heading towards the Boumaln Dades. We traversed the Atlas mountains via Tizi-N-Tishka, and arrived at a kasbah (fortress) called Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou. This kasbah is famous for the movies shot onsite, including The Gladiator, Jesus of Nazareth, and Lawrence of Arabia.
Although people had once lived in the kasbah, it's now almost completely abandoned (except for the merchants hawing their wares to tourists). We did see an elderly lady combing through some raw wool with steel brushes through her doorway, and she invited us to see her dwelling -- for a fee, of course.
She was living in this mud building with none of the usual modern conveniences: her kitchen was a small, dark room with a tiny hole in the ceiling for the smoke to escape from the earthen oven; she had her sheep and chickens living with her in the next room; I saw only a few sticks of furniture, and I wasn't sure if she had electricity. Despite the tangle of questionably valuable stuff I saw crowding the corners, I walked up the steep and narrow stairs to her formal living room with the expectation that it would be beautiful. As I swept my eyes from left to right, I was not disappointed: clearly, a substantial amount of her resources had been dedicated to making this room as cheerful as possible. When I got to the head of the room, my eyes stopped and widened. Instead of the commonly seen Quran, on the wall was a framed picture of Russell Crowe in his gladiator outfit! That was the highlight of my day. :)
I spotted a really cute cat outside of her house. He was so tiny!
We continued through Ouarzazate and headed to Skoura, which is known for its massive oasis dotted by many kasbahs. We then drove through El Qalaa Mgouna ("the valley of roses") and along beautiful valley along the Dades river to a town called Tinghir, where we visited gorges of the high Atlas mountains.
We ended the day at Boumaln Dades, where we stayed in an beautiful hotel decorated with a mix of African and modern art. The rooftop lounge and pool area had a gorgeous view. Daniela got a massage and I took a swim before we headed to a scrumptious buffet dinner. I ordered a glass of orange juice to go with my supper, and it was surprisingly delicate in its sweetness with no trace of tartness -- probably the best I've ever had. Yum!
For pictures of Morocco, please click here.
