Day  Ten

Date:     7 May 2013

Place:    M’gouna - Ouarzazate

Weather:   Sunny and very hot

Accommodation:   Les Jardins

Our gite was a good hour up the valley so we were able to have another look at the Dades Valley  -  this time in sunshine.  The cliffs are bare and stark and we stopped high above the valley and overlooked a Kasbah perched on a small hill above the stream.  It reminded me of castles on the Rhine.

Early morning view from the terrace up the Valley of the Roses.

 



On the road again......

 



Stunning views....amazing what a difference water makes!

 



A Kasbah along the way!

 

We passed through busy El Kelaa where the rose festival will commence in a few days and saw many shops selling rose products.  Our first stop out of the town for a coffee and a break was attached to a little shop selling a diverse range of gifts including rose face cream, hand lotion, oils and naturally scarves, jewellery and hand-carved animals.

We were now heading to the road of a thousand kasbahs and the dry riverbed of Oued Amahidil.  The Kasbah Amridil is a grand and very large Kasbah used for many films including Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.  Our guide was very entertaining describing this now unlived in Kasbah.  From the top we could see the riverbed, date palmeries and other kasbahs dotted along the scene.  The guide said most of the kasbahs were either in ruin, used as museums or hotels.

Kasbah Amridil - an amusing and informative guide took us through here.

My delicious raisin and prune tagine for lunch.

 

The Skour Oasis which the kasbahs sits on has its river fed from the High Atlas Mountains when the snow melts.

Not too far along we stopped at Ouarzazate  for lunch and the heat was now pretty intense.  As we waited for our fellow travellers to use the ATM the footpath gauge read 37 degrees.

I enjoyed a very delicious lunch of prune, raisin and meat tagine and David had a vegetable and beef tagine.  A couple of our fellow travellers have funny tummies so they were eating rice sprinkled with cumin.  Another traveller was feeling like a western meal however it was a monumental fail with warm chips and indifferent skewered meat.  I think the tagines are the best bet!

At 5pm the sun was still bright in the sky and half the team set off to the movie set established in 1983.  Jewell of the Nile, Ben Hur (remake), Gladiator, The Passion of Christ and others were filmed here.  I didn’t go however the others enjoyed the visit but the heat was very intense and they were relieved to return to the cool hotel.

Front.......

back.......not is all as it seems at the movie studio!

Drinks were on the terrace before dinner and it is lovely to sit with our fellow travellers who are a great bunch.  One lady celebrated her 60^th birthday and the dinner that followed was a grand affair in a luxury tent in the rear of the hotel.  Rose petals were scattered over the table, fine crockery, a Berber banjo player (brilliant) and a huge birthday cake made it a very special evening for our new friend.

The interior of our hotel.