Ouarzazate

Our day started of trying to fulfil a great idea that came to us over our 2nd bottle of Moroccan Cabernet Savingon the night before. We, that is Cath,myself and our two new friends Lilian and Esther, had all been sitting around the little living area between our rooms pouring over our guide books trying to decide where we were going to head after Ouarzazate. After a couple of hours of no luck and no decision being made the idea was thrown up to hire a car between the four of us for a few days and travel the countryside at will and ending up in Essouria where we would unfortunately have to part company. We had found a good quote on the internet the night before but we dismissed it as they wanted to charge us 3.5Dh per kilometre. Yeah like we were going to agree to that.

So that’s how we ended up this morning walking into the Ouarzazate office of Avis and telling them what we wanted and asked for a quote. Surprisingly it was quite good - better than the online price - and included unlimited kilometres. So that how we came to get Gary. Gary Golf that is - the lovely little VW golf that was ours to command for the next few days. And yes - of course we had to name him!!!!

It was as we were all piling into Gary - me in the driver’s seat, Lil - front passenger, console operator, munchies supplier and navigator, Cath and Es in the rear - Route planners and DJ’s - another car suddenly pulled over in front of us the occupants waving. It was only once they had got out of the car that we recognised Yussef, Dena and Joanie’s guide, and their driver Brahim. We had a good chat and arranged to meet up with them a half hour later at the Atlas Studios outside of town. We gave it half an hour as we figured it would take me that long to work out how to drive Gary from the wrong side of the car and on the wrong side of the road. That was Lil’s other job to keep saying the following things to me every time we approached an intersection - “Keep right”, “Look left”. Between that and attempting to wind the window down every time I wanted to change gears made for an interesting morning.

We made it the 7 or so kilometres to the studio complex, met up with Joanie and Dena and joined in the tour of the studios. Here’s the image for you - large plot of land surrounded by open plains of desert with mountains in the distance, goats and their shepherd wandering the site at will, a few odd buildings and a gate. It was very simple but interesting as the guide explained the different sets and the movies that had been made there - Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Cleopatra, Kundun, etc. The idea of bottling some of the dirt that Russell Crowe or Orlando Bloom had stood on and then selling it on EBay was floated a number of times.

The highlighted comment for the day did not come from me for a change but from Joanie. We had all been draped around a sitting lion set which had been used for a number of movies including ‘Cleopatra’.  Yussef had his arm covered in all our cameras as he was acting as the official photographer.  As he began to take the photos he called out to us, ‘Say Cleopatra’ to which Joanie commented, “What’s cleopatra?”. Once we had stopped laughing we dutifully explained.

After our studio tour, we followed the others (ie Joanie, Deana, Yousef and Brahim) 30 kilometres out of town to Ait Benhaddou which is a beautiful and well preserved Kasbah on the side of a hill which had been the setting for many films such as Gladiator (the scenes after he is captured as a slave and begins his Gladiator training), Jewel of the Nile, Lawrence of Arabia to name a few. Let’s just say that there are going to be a few DVD nights when we get home just so that we can have the perverse pleasure of saying “I’ve been there!”. Thankfully the Kasbah is now under Unesco (or heritage) protection so that it can be preserved for many generations to come. Only about 10 families now live within the kasbah itself as it does not have any running water, electricity, etc. The remainder of the occupants now live in the village just across the river.

Ah the river - it all comes back to water for us doesn’t it! Remember in previous journal entries, Cath and I may have mentioned that we had come across a spot of rain whilst here? Well as a result of that little drizzle the river was flooded and we could not cross by ourselves. Now when I say flooded we’re not talking about raging torrent that swept away half the town but a river at least 10 metres wide, deep enough to come up to mid thigh and flowing quick enough that there was a good enough chance that I would slip and end up on my butt. So how were we to get across and over to the Kasbah I hear you ask. It was by this time that we were literally surrounded by young boys and teenagers clutching the reins of various camels and donkey’s. Yousef busily negotiated a 10dh fee for the return trip and allocated us our ‘drivers’. I was given a boost up onto this huge donkey, the teenager vaulted up in front of me and off we go at a fast walk verging on a trot down the embankment and into the river with me on the back saying repeatedly in a high pitched voice “slowly please slowly” to which the driver replied through laughter “yes slowly”.

I’ll give you all a minute to stop laughing…................................

After several minutes of again imaging myself on my butt sitting in the middle of the river, we safely and dryly I might add made it to the other side and hence commenced an exploration of the kasbah with a local guide who showed us some restored living areas including bedrooms, well and kitchen within the kasbah. After exploring the kasbah, we again ventured the river on our donkey’s and headed but up to the top of the hill for lunch of a tangine, omelette and of course Moroccan bread, on a patio overlooking the kasbah.

We moseyed back into Ouarzazate, stopped at the supermarket for some more wine, cheeses, salami and other ingredients for a carpet picnic dinner as well as the laundry for our clean clothes and headed back to our hotel and planned our next day as we had decided to backtrack a little now we had the car so that we didn’t miss out on seeing the gorges.

What a great day it had been and the car had already proved it’s worth allowing us to see sights that we ordinarily may not have seen due to their location and the cost involved in trying to get transport out there.

So far this trip has been a real eye opener for me and I have had a number of ‘FIRSTS’ already including:
- first time backpacking with only 2 pairs of shoes and no hairdryer
- first time in hotel without hot water - wasn’t that a fun one
- first time experiencing the joy of turkish toilets (for those confused they are the squat variety) though it did take til the second attempt before I correctly worked out what the bucket and tap were for. Before all you experienced backpackers roll your eyes, Cath had dutifully explained the etiquette of squat toilets for me but had forgotten to mention that that was for Asian countries and did not apply here…...
- first time on a camel
- first time peeing behind a sand dune and hoping that the people sitting on top of the high dune nearby cannot see or recognise me
- first time driving on the wrong side of the road sitting on the wrong side of the car
- first time a foreign official from another country has unsuccessfully attempted to get a bribe out of me
- first time (and hopefully only) time being rained on in the Sahara
- first time crossing flood waters in a trailer being pulled along by a tractor and then by donkey
- first time walking down a dry waterfall

........... could keep going but it would only bore you. If there are anymore embarrassing one’s that I have forgotten I have no doubt Cath will add a comment to this entry to let you all know.