Day 5
The sun apparently woke up early in this part of the world. So we did too, to watch it rise. 6’o clock, brutal! A little over an hour on camels took us back to Yasmina. Though we had to ask for some tech support in between, the bath felt really refreshing. The breakfast brought us back from our elated state – stale, and the worst mint tea we had on the trip. But, to be fair, they’re in the middle of nowhere, so things must be tough to maintain.
We returned the way we came, and chose to skip an archaeology museum visit on the way. For the second day running, we had a long way to go – close to 400km.
We passed Rissani, and when we began seeing hills, Hisham told us about the tribes that didn’t acknowledge the king. Berbers without bosses. We saw camels taking a walk, reminded me of AT-AT walkers in Star Wars. Around this area were mines belonging to a company owned by the king. As per Hisham, the king of Morocco was the 8th richest man in the world. Turns out he is only 5th in Africa. Life must be tough!
Further on, we stopped at an Afriquia for the pre-lunch nus nus. This gas station didn’t have a free WiFi though. There was an elderly man busily scribbling away. Hisham said he was a government official – the “eyes and ears” of the government – who was supposed to keep his bosses informed of every little thing that happened in the town. Apparently a system that still works.
We soon passed a town in which all the buildings seemed to be shut. Seems most of its population works abroad and sends back money. Reminded me of Kerala. Looked like they also sent back tons of plastic bags because for kilometres, we could see plastic bags floating around. Quite surreal!
Our first stop for the day was the Todgha (Todra) gorge. On the way, we saw towns whose buildings seemed to be on camouflage mode! The gorge seemed to be a spot that appealed to both local tourists as well as Euro campers. Lunch was at a town nearby. D had a Berber omelette, olives seemed to be the only differentiator.
Dadès Gorges, a.k.a Monkey Fingers was named so because of its appearance. We could see quite a few kasbahs around, built a long while ago as defense. Also commonly found were euro joggers!
Beyond Tinghir (Tinehir) we passed a town that seemed straight out of some art movie. There were absolutely no people around, and no sounds! When we checked with Hisham, he said people were inside because of the heat and wind! 30s (degree C) were what we were experiencing! :O
We then passed Hisham’s own town, and had tea in a cafe which had a fantastic view. We also met Hisham’s brother there. More on him later. The area was famous for roses and D visited a factory where they made rose-based products.
Ouarzazate was quite a surreal experience. There were many studios around, and we visited one of them too. High price for the tickets though, guess that must be a major revene stream! But productions from Lawrence of Arabia to Game of Thrones (Season 3) had been shot in this area. All of Ouarzazate seemed as though someone had decided to give the place a Hollywood makeover, including the downtown area and the cars we saw there!
We finally reached Ait Benhaddou close to 8 PM and checked in to the Riad Maktoub. It was too late to climb the UNESCO Heritage site and we put it off until the next morning. The rooms were compact, but very well done. We had a tajine for dinner, which was fairly good. Orange slices, with cinnamon powder, for dessert. Very politely, they asked us if we wanted mint tea, and we gulped down a couple of glasses each. We found out the next morning that it was charged extra. (the dinner was part of the package) Hollywood extras! :\
