On the Move—From Marrakesh to Ouarzazate, Gateway to the High Atlas Mountains

Monday, November, 25, 2019:

On the Move—From Marrakesh to Ouarzazate, Gateway to the High Atlas Mountains

Today was spent essentially in a small van as we headed away from the urban environs of Marrakech into the High Atlas Mountains for our tour of the region of the Dras Valley until our arrival in Ouarzazate. 

We woke up at 7.30, got dressed, packed up and went straight to the Reception to check out and settle our dining bill.  Then we headed to the Breakfast Room called Carpe Diem for eggs—an omelette with cold cuts, grilled veg and fruit with freshly-squeezed OJ. I am drinking an enormous amount of OJ—so getting a lot more Vitamin C than usual!

By 9.00 am, we were assembling in the lobby for our departure which was at 9.30 am. By 10. 30 am, our climb into the Atlas Mountains began. The scenery was pretty drab—not much by way of beauty to report. We had a couple of stops as government vehicles (cranes and earth movers) were clearing up landslides. At about 1.30 pm, we stopped for lunch.

Lunch in the Middle of Nowhere:

It is hard to describe exactly where we were for lunch. It seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere. It was a very pretty location, however, as we climbed up steps to get to what seemed like a shack in a little garden shaded by olive trees. We sat al fresco and enjoyed a huge platter of salad (the goat cheese in it was particularly delicious)—there were picked carrots, pickled beetroot, stewed zucchini, aubergine, etc. Everything was served and eaten with the famous flat Moroccan bread and truly, it was the most tasty bread we have eaten so far. We could have made a meal of just the salads but then the main dish came. It was vegetable tajine served with the hot condiment called harissa and a huge platter of spaghetti with tomato sauce. All really good. Somehow the mountain air made everything seem far tastier. We enjoyed it so much. Dessert was a sort of potato creation (with the consistency of caramel custard) served with a sauce of cinnamon and oranges—very unusual and very good. We posed for pictures in that wonderful location and then set off again. Abdul told us that we were in the Valley of the Roses, a part of the Atlas Mountains where roses grow profusely for the making of rose water (for cooking) and attar (perfume concentrate) that is exported around the world. June-July is the big season when the area hosts a huge Rose Festival.    

Arrival and Climbing Tour of Ait Ben Haddou:

We arrived about a half hour later at Ait Ben Haddou. Ait means Village and Ben Haddou was the name of the man who created this settlement (it literally means Son of Haddou). It is really a wonderfully dramatic location. It is a mountain on which an entire human habitation has been created. Apparently it dates back a thousand years and was once fertile because the river that runs through the base was vigorous.  Today it has been reduced to a trickle but the villagers still manage to use it for irrigation of their olive trees and other plantations that seem to create a small oasis. 

This village is the backdrop of so many Hollywood movies and TV series—from Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator to The Bible and Game of Thrones. We began our climb up into the Kasbah which I learned is so-called because the entrance to it and each of the dwellings is characterized by four square turrets—this is typical of Moroccan native architecture. 

Our guide Abdul explained that the houses are made of sod—basically red earth mixed with water and occasionally a bit of straw. The walls and the ceilings have to be re-plastered with the same material once every two years as rain water quickly reduces it to sludge. 

There were a lot of tour groups in the area and as everyone huffed and puffed their way to the top of the mountain where the granary was housed, we stopped frequently to take rest and get back our breath. The dusty, orche-colored landscape surrounding us was basically desert with smaller, more modern dwellings, in the same style seen too. 

It took us about an hour to get to the top. We paused frequently to take pictures because the setting and the landscape are so unusual and lent themselves well to group and individual pictures. It was fun although very taxing indeed for the climb was steep and it was a fairly hot afternoon. Needless to day, we stripped off layers as we went ever higher. 

After we reached the summit, we paused again to take more pictures. There were Hollywood style native Americans in costume charging tourists to take pictures with them. That said, it was not really so incongruous as the flat-topped Atlas Mountains did remind us a bit of the American southwest and replicated the look of the mesas of Colorado or Utah. 

Not too long after, we began our descent—certainly more challenging as it puts great weight and pressure on our aging knees! Still, when we reached the bottom, we crossed a bridge that took us back to our van where we happily sank down for a rest.

We made one more stop at a provision store to buy booze (we picked up a can of beer and some snacks and water) and then we were skirting Ouarzazate which is called the Hollywood of Morocco as many major film studios have set up establishments here and are actually used in the global film industry. 

Setting down in our Hotel Ksar Ben Youssef:

We pulled into the driveway of our hotel—Ksar Ben Youssef (Ksar means Hotel). We checked in after the mandatory glass of hot and very refreshing mint tea and then we adjourned into our rooms where I tried to take a nap but simply could not fall asleep.

At 8.oo pm, we assembled for dinner in the dining room and enjoyed a lovely meal—thankfully, it was not a tajine with couscous—we had a delicious thick lentil soup called harira which is usually eaten at iftar when Moroccan Muslims break fast during Ramadan. It was really good with the lovely flat Moroccan bread. They also served us dates (lovely) and a sweet studded with sesame. I ate it for dessert as it was so sweet. Our main dish was a beef hot pot with a variety of steamed vegetables. It was delicious and made such a good change from the tajine and couscous. Dessert was a lovely plate of fresh fruit—all cut up and arranged artistically.  Sadly, there was too much of it (portion sizes, in general, were huge) and we basically ate just a bit of it. It also happened to be Jennifer’s birthday today—Abdul has organized a box of cookies for her with a tiny muffin into which he had stuck a candle. We had sung Happy birthday for her a couple of time today. It was nice to have something to celebrate.

Dinner done, we returned to our rooms for the night.

A bientot!