Sitting on a private sun terrace in a very posh hotel overlooking the Gorge. In fact the most exclusive posh hotel in this area, according to our Rough Guide. As it's private I've even been able to take my long sleeved shirt off and my legs have just seen daylight for the first time this trip.
Last night in the Kasbah was amazing and an experience we are so pleased not to have missed. No warm, never mind hot water was a blow. There hadn't been any the night before at Defat Kasbah and we both need a bit of a wash. Eating sitting on a cushion is quite good fun for a bit, how do you learn not to drip the food into your lap, although not so comfortable when you have two artificial hip joints. We are well within budget, that's wrong as we are fortunate enough not to have one, let's say we haven't spent as much money as we had anticipated. So here we are, this place is luxurious, £80 a night including dinner and breakfast. Evidently the restaurant is renowned, it is run by an ex-pat Belgian chef who can compete with Michelin starred chefs in London and Paris. As we expected we have had couscous and couscous and couscous just lately so we are looking forward to something a bit different tonight. Having said that the breakfast this morning at Kasbah Itran was amazing, strong coffee, warm bread, omelette, crepes, olives (black and green), honey ( similar to that the day before, thick and black), and the same amazing butter, the colour of thick cream but tasting like a slightly cheesy butter. There was also thick jam, possibly apricot.
NOTE: We think it must be the French influence, everywhere we have been we have had delicious bread, and lovely fresh ground coffee.
At least three of the brothers waved us off as we drove away, spectacular in their black turbans and long robes.
It's a very short hop once you are back on the main road from The Valley of the Roses to the village of Boumalne, from where the Dades Gorge peels back into the High Atlas Mountains. So it was only just after 11 when we had driven the first 27 kms into the Gorge to find the hotel. We are aware that we are in the middle of the European Easter holiday so places will get booked up last week and next with tour groups. So in this touristy area, most of the groups stopping over are hiking/adventure holidays, they come in 4WD convoys, we are doing short hops, finding somewhere to stay first and then doing our sight seeing. So far it is working well.
I thought yesterday and the Valley of the Roses would be the climax of the mountain scenery, but today......
We drove another 30ish kms up the Gorge into the High Atlas. It was scary (for me), in fact I am beginning to wonder if I have come to the end of my desire for mountain travel. The hairpin bends were so sharp that on some of them John could only just get the car round in a single lock. We were at around 2000 metres again, and briefly opening my eyes on the odd occasion it seemed to me that the valley floor was a full 2000 metre vertical drop, just cms from the side of the road. Far below we could see the Dades river, in many places overflowing it's banks, so much water rushing down, presumably the recent heavy rains combined with the Spring snow melt. There had also been several rock falls, partially obscuring the road, and sand and gravel had been washed down. In places we dropped down and followed the river and at one point the Gorge was so narrow it only took the river and the road, and the river was so full it flowed completely over the road. Men were at work with sand bags and gravel to keep the road passable. There was another point, just before we decided to turn back where the road was a ledge, little more than the width of a car, with crumbling rocks at the edge, hanging over the valley.
I think we have got one more Gorge to do, the Todra, and that's scheduled for tomorrow. Then because I've been a really good girl and not Oooo-ed and Aaaah-ed too many times at the scary bits, John has promised to take me back to the Desert for a bit where it's warm. I don't mind the sand dunes, at least you can't drive up and down them. So we will head off towards Erfoud and then down towards Mergouza, I think that's Lawrence of Arabia country, before curling back up northwards towards the Mediterranean and the Rif. I've been reading about the Rif Badlands, it is a commercial cannabis growing area. Maybe we won't make too many stops there.
Other things:
I really like the fact that none of the women here are veiled. They all wear headscarfs but no face veils. Their clothes are still spectacular, even working in the fields they wear beautifully embroidered clothes. I'm not sure how traditional, like old traditional, they are though. They do seem to go in for crushed velvet quite a bit, and other synthetic fabrics, the sort I would say were probably made in Taiwan or China.
They carry enormous loads. We passed so many on the road today, mostly it seemed to be animal fodder. They have large pieces of cloth which are stuffed with it and tied up and then they carry them on their backs, not on their heads, as I would have expected.
Yesterday was Friday, day of prayer, and I don't know if that had anything to do with it, there were lots of men in long white robes. Not Berber type robes, ankle length coat dresses with pixie hoods, which they mostly wore up, you couldn't really see their faces at all. We kept passing them on the road. They looked like the Klu Klux Clan.
The only place we have stayed in and haven't had a (free) wifi connection in is the Sahara Sky, the most expensive one. It was in the desert, they only had a satellite phone linked into a military satellite, maybe that's why it was so expensive.
We've just had a lovely afternoon sitting on the terrace in the sun, reading, it was warm in the sun, but it is still cool in the shade and it will get cold tonight. We kept getting trays of things delivered, a tray of mint tea, sweetened with honey, and a plate of salted roasted peanuts. Then John went and bought a couple of beers ( you can tell it's really exclusive, they do alcohol) and came back with a bowl of delicious olives. The olives here are excellent, the best I have ever had anywhere.
I've got well into 'The Help' and am enjoying it, glad I didn't go to see the film.
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