Wednesday 25th, Thursday 26th and Friday 27th September
We started the day by driving through the Todra Gorge, the scenery was spectacular. The massive fault dividing the high Atlas mountains and the Jebel Sarhro is at some points just wide enough for a river and single file trekkers to pass through. High walls of pink and grey rock close in around the road and it can often get clogged up with tourists and souvenir sellers later in the day so we went early and almost had the place to ourselves.
We then drove to Dades Gorge, which is used on the art-deco posters of Morocco showing a red and white kasbah in a rocky oasis. There were also some amazing red rock formations with palm trees below.
We then decided to press on towards Marrakesh and drove to Ouarzazate, in total driving 187 miles today. The original plan was to head back into the desert at Zagora to see Erg Chigaga, however we had already had a great 2 days already in the desert at Merzouga and wanted to see other things.
On Thursday it was my turn to drive and part of the journey was to climb the Tizi n` Tichka pass (over 2,000 metres high) which connects Marrakesh with the pre Saharan oases and is a steep and windy road in parts, I couldn’t wait! Before that we decided to take the scenic route around Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO protected 11th Century kasbah, which has been used in various films including Gladiator, Jewel of the Nile, Lawrence of Arabia and Jesus of Nazareth. We then went off road after Telouet as it ran out of tarmac, it was great fun bouncing along over the stones and pot holes, it then became tarmac again and began climbing and winding. We stopped just before it rejoined the main road for lunch at a lovely auberge run by a French woman and her Moroccan husband, Elizabeth and Hossaine. They had only been open for a few months and were building up their business, with plans for art sessions, carpet making sessions, guided walks, cookery etc.
Then on to the pass! We had already ascended quite a bit so we were fairly near the top. I must admit though,I grabbed the steering wheel tightly and tried not to look down to my left as we negotiated the steep and windy roads with massive drops. As we approached the pass tens of people would wave at us or even try and stop the landy to sell us fossils! At one particular scary bit when I had at least a 1,000 metre drop immediately on my left and I had slowed down, a fossil seller came up to the window desperate to sell. “I don’t want a sodding fossil, I’m trying to concentrate on this bloody road” I muttered, which made Gav chuckle.
We rolled into to Marrakesh late afternoon afternoon after a spectacular day’s driving with a spectacular driver! The camp site is lovely, so we have decided to take a day off tomorrow (aren’t they all days off I hear you cry?!) We have covered over 2,000 miles in 2 weeks and are ready for a day of doing little but relaxing and enjoying the tremendous weather which was 38 degrees when we approached Marrakesh.We have been to Marrakesh before so don`t feel the need to dash around and sight see, but we will go into the City on Saturday for the souks and continue to fine tune my bartering skills. The internet connection is slow tonight so no captions on the pics below!
We started the day by driving through the Todra Gorge, the scenery was spectacular. The massive fault dividing the high Atlas mountains and the Jebel Sarhro is at some points just wide enough for a river and single file trekkers to pass through. High walls of pink and grey rock close in around the road and it can often get clogged up with tourists and souvenir sellers later in the day so we went early and almost had the place to ourselves.
We then drove to Dades Gorge, which is used on the art-deco posters of Morocco showing a red and white kasbah in a rocky oasis. There were also some amazing red rock formations with palm trees below.
We then decided to press on towards Marrakesh and drove to Ouarzazate, in total driving 187 miles today. The original plan was to head back into the desert at Zagora to see Erg Chigaga, however we had already had a great 2 days already in the desert at Merzouga and wanted to see other things.
On Thursday it was my turn to drive and part of the journey was to climb the Tizi n` Tichka pass (over 2,000 metres high) which connects Marrakesh with the pre Saharan oases and is a steep and windy road in parts, I couldn’t wait! Before that we decided to take the scenic route around Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO protected 11th Century kasbah, which has been used in various films including Gladiator, Jewel of the Nile, Lawrence of Arabia and Jesus of Nazareth. We then went off road after Telouet as it ran out of tarmac, it was great fun bouncing along over the stones and pot holes, it then became tarmac again and began climbing and winding. We stopped just before it rejoined the main road for lunch at a lovely auberge run by a French woman and her Moroccan husband, Elizabeth and Hossaine. They had only been open for a few months and were building up their business, with plans for art sessions, carpet making sessions, guided walks, cookery etc.
Then on to the pass! We had already ascended quite a bit so we were fairly near the top. I must admit though,I grabbed the steering wheel tightly and tried not to look down to my left as we negotiated the steep and windy roads with massive drops. As we approached the pass tens of people would wave at us or even try and stop the landy to sell us fossils! At one particular scary bit when I had at least a 1,000 metre drop immediately on my left and I had slowed down, a fossil seller came up to the window desperate to sell. “I don’t want a sodding fossil, I’m trying to concentrate on this bloody road” I muttered, which made Gav chuckle.
We rolled into to Marrakesh late afternoon afternoon after a spectacular day’s driving with a spectacular driver! The camp site is lovely, so we have decided to take a day off tomorrow (aren’t they all days off I hear you cry?!) We have covered over 2,000 miles in 2 weeks and are ready for a day of doing little but relaxing and enjoying the tremendous weather which was 38 degrees when we approached Marrakesh.We have been to Marrakesh before so don`t feel the need to dash around and sight see, but we will go into the City on Saturday for the souks and continue to fine tune my bartering skills. The internet connection is slow tonight so no captions on the pics below!
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