We spend a day driving through lush valleys and gorges, desert scenes and extraordinary rock formations. We follow the road of a thousand kasbahs, bleached stone leggo type structures surrounded by date palms. Past villages of peeling stucco walls and interesting forms of transportation.
In the Todra valley we walk, cliffs looming on either side of us, clean mountain streams trickling. Berber women arrive on horseback with donkeys following to fetch water. Carpet and scarf sellers line the roadside as families picnic in the cool mountain air.
We stop at a bustling market along the way at Jort. The sellers making use of recycled containers. They were selling lichens that are used medicinally, okra, melons that they slashed open to reveal the glistening sweet, deep pink interior. The smell of spices in the open air is overwhelming.
And then on through more fertile gorges and abandoned villages of soft rust colours, of salmon pink and mauve mountains, silvery grey and rich emeralds of the greenery along the waterways against the soft baby blue of the sky is stunning.
We lunch in the Dades valley at a strange local restaurant, painted in gemstone colours of malachite and lapis, carnelian and turquoise. I sit surrounded by chickens, cats and peahen babies. They bring me a tiny white pasta with peanuts and sugar on top and the usual chicken tajine, this time with succulent apricots. I'm surrounded by tourists again, Australians, Asian and French but I love the feel of this place.
Then we pass through the Monkey toe formations, past silver and tin mines and more desolate desert.
It's a long trip today, I'm tired, hot and dusty and suddenly we pull up and my guide gets out and brings me a handful of tiny figs that he says are the best along the roadside. They are amazing, like jam inside, soft and sweet. I perk up.
My guides won't tell me where we're staying tonight, they want it to be a surprise. I worry that it will be a tourist designed place rather than the traditional riads that I love and sadly it is but they're so excited about it. Four stars they tell me but I'm a three star sort of gal.
I'm welcomed by Berber singers and I smile at my guides and go and settle into my African themed room. The place was built by two Spanish guys. How wonderful would it be if they had taken over some of the abandoned kasbahs so tourists could live in authentic accommodation. But dinner is good, I have an amazing chicken and prune tajine, a spicy fish dish with cinnamon, cumin and spices I can't place. And alcohol! A rose from a vineyard somewhere in Morocco. And then after watching a late sunset from the roof, I fall into a deep sleep in preparation for another day of travel to my ultimate destination - Marrakech.
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