Todgha Gorge, Rose Valley, Ouarzazate
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
–Robert Louis Stevenson
Day 7 – Tuesday, January 16, 2024
I suppose if you make a big to-do about the sun’s set, you best make an equal fuss about its rise. And so we did, gaining some final gorgeous images before heading back to Hassan’s 4x4 for the drive out of the desert and back to the bus.
A short drive on the bus brought us to Macro Fossiles Kasbah. You may find it as surprising as I did that the biggest, hottest desert in the world was once underwater. The Sahara Desert contains many of the oldest, biggest, and most unusual fossils ever found. The Kasbah highlights these fossils as art that takes the form largely of furniture. In fact, when we checked in our hotel in Ouarzazate that night, the front counter had fossils embedded and was probably obtained from the Kasbah. Pretty amazing work they’ve done to highlight the fossils.
After exploring the fossils, we made our morning break at the Café Restaurant Itran, where Abdul broke out another box of fancy cookies he had bought from the bakery just outside Fes.
On our way to the famous Todgha Gorge, we drove through Tinghir, with its picturesque old buildings, and then stopped at an overlook that gave a commanding view of the city. From there it was on to the steep canyon wall of the Todgha Gorge. After exploring the area of foot, we all met up at Dar Ayour Restaurant for lunch, where I was finally able to order a Stork beer (I prefer Casablanca, as it turns out). My vegetable tajine arrived with the clay lid in place. The waiter removed it with great flourish to reveal a sizzling-hot lunch similar to how fajitas are often served (or are fajitas served just like tajine? 😊 ).
After lunch we passed through the large town of Tinghir on the way to the Valley of the Roses. The Valley of the Roses is famous for…well.. you guessed it—roses. They are committed to their namesake to such an extent that all their taxis are painted pink. I picked up some rose water, rose perfume, and rose essential oil for Amanda. Then it we drove through Skoura to our hotel in Ouarzazate.
Morocco is famous for apples, roses, and fossils? Next you’ll say they’re also famous in the movie industry! Yep. That’s the story of Ouarzazate, but that’s for tomorrow’s post.
Sunrise in the Sahara Desert (jackets required)
Sunrise in the Sahara Desert
Sunrise in the Sahara Desert
Sunrise over camp
Sunrise over camp; the dining tent in the back center.
Back in the 4x4 with the best driver in the bunch: Hassan.
Located in south Erfoud: Macro Fossiles Kasbah.
Everyone needs one of these in their entryway. The long, tapered fossils were an ancient form of squid.
Who knows what these wild looking creatures were.
Gigantic underwater pill bugs?
Pretty cool how the remove the surrounding stone to reveal the embedded ancient sea life.
If this is too ostentatious, they have entire place settings (plates, bowls, etc.), all with fossils embedded—much more workaday. 😉
Just outside Erfoud are what look like giant molehills but are in fact part of an ancient irrigation system. Most wells involve digging a vertical shaft downward until it reaches the watertable, and then hauling or pumping water to the surface.
Qanats consist of gently inclined horizontal tunnels dug into sloping terrain. When the horizontal tunnel hits the watertable, gravity causes water to simply flow downhill in the channel toward outlets at the base of the slope.
Daily market as we passed through a random town.
Sadly, this is by far not the most over-packed vehicle we saw. Morocco’s vehicle laws are a bit like the USPS: “If it fits, it ships.”
Letter Z from the Berber alphabet, typically used to represent the Berber peoples. The Berber peoples are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa, who pre-date the arrival of Arabs. Most highway signs are now being resigned with the Arab language first, followed by Berber, and finally French.
Morning toilet and cappuccino break at Café Restaurant Itran (and the last box of Moroccan cookies from the bakery outside Fes).
Looking over Tinghir.
Looking over Tinghir.
Looking over Tinghir.
Tinghir
Todgha Gorge
Young goat herder in the gorge.
Goats, as usual, eating literally anything.
Locals in a section of dry riverbed in the gorge.
Local vendors in the gorge. Can anyone identify the car?
Cool water-diversion canal.
The alleyway seemed a bit sketch at first, but turns out Dar Ayour Guest House at the end puts on a really great lunch.
Welcome!
Fun interior overlooking the river (just outside the windows)
Me, Cayla, and mom Carey (Andy from N. Wales).
More of the exceptional black olives…and vegetable tagine served sizzling hot! Delicious!
The hotel and restaurant.
After lunch we passed through Valley of the Roses. Much like Midelt’s apple fountains, roses feature strongly throughout the city. Each April and May the valley is flooded with local women picking roses to be shipped off to factories in nearby Kalaat. Here they are turned into everything from shampoo to hand creams; cure-alls and nasal decongestants.
Even the local taxies are painted pink to go with the city’s rose theme.
We stopped to get a few gifts.
All things rose. I got Amanda rose water, rose essential oil, and fresh rose perfume.
From here we drove to our hotel in Ouarzazate: Hotel La Perle du Sud (the pearl of the south hotel). Maybe not a fresh-water pearl, but I’ll settle for a cultured pearl. Good night Ouarzazate! 💤 I said goodnight!
