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Published: March 5th 2008
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Bhalil
Sheep eating nothing We were up and dressed ready to meet Anthony for half nine. We found a decent café to have juice and a pastry for breakfast and we also bought bread for dinner later. I quickly nipped next door to an internet café to ring dad about interviews. It looks like its mixed news; I have two interviews, but the dates are before our flight home.
The main aim of today was to get away from the city and see a nice pretty town with a few sights and add a few more names to our places we have visited list. We got a collective taxi for 10dh each to a place called Sefrou where we transferred into another grand taxi (3dh) for a place called Bhalil.
Lonely Planet said that Bhalil has "a number of troglodyte houses" which we initially set out in search of. Without knowing where they were, we walked in the direction of the mountains believing that this was the obvious place to begin our search. We walked to the foot of the rocky mountain and none of us could see anything of the troglodyte dwellings. We paused for thought and were immediately accosted by young
Goat Bum
Steph though it was a dogs face? children who tried most of the tricks of the trade to get something out of us. Slightly at a loss for what to do next and slightly for antagonistic purposes we decided to stand and just watch the kids for a while. Eventually they tired of us and returned to a game of jumping over puddles but they did stop to say aurevoir as we left.
Our route took us along a path used by little more than mules, on to a steep path with a few clucking hens. Towards the top we were greeted by a flock of sheep and their Shepard grazing above us (the sheep grazing not the Shepard). Once we had detoured around the sheep we were at the top of the hill looking down at the village, but no caves in sight. Here we gave in and sat down to have an early lunch (11:30).
Using our cheese, onions and crisps we made our interesting baguettes while Anthony had tuna on his sandwiches. After eating we watched as the Shepard hearded his sheep on to a patch of gravel to graze; although they seemed to find something. A few slips later and we
were once again at the bottom of the hill wondering what to do. A short walk through the town concluded in a decision to walk back to Sefrou.
Following only the compass point we started walking the 5km back. Shortly up the road we were stopped by a truck driver who asked us if we wanted a lift. Jumping into the cab we headed off to the unknown, as we didn't share a language the conversation was a little sparse but he was kind all the same. After a short and pretty ride we were dropped off a little shaken; poor roads and dodgy seats had taken their toll.
We entered Sefrou on the top of the town and had a very good view down. In the town we noticed an alcohol shop and purchased some well priced wine and a couple of beers. We'd been out since too early in the morning o'clock and nature was calling so we nipped into a cafe to use their facilities. Not wanting to be rude we counter-productively ordered a few OJs before setting off to the cascades.
The waterfall was not far from the center of town and was
quite pretty and a surprising number of People were around to enjoy it. We sat down to chat and drank our beers listening to the falling water. Getting back to the taxi rank led to a small detour though the medina before a relatively painless journey back.
It was after seven when we arrived back so went to the golden arches to get cheap ice creams before going to an internet Café; Anthony tries to speak to his girlfriend about 8 every night. It was very busy so Steph and I waited outside for him to send an email. A few clicks later and we were in the same nudge nudge wink wink restaurant as the day before. Eating was much the same as always and after a lot of talking we said goodbye, Anthony was moving on tomorrow, and set off home.
On the way back a large group of lads and boys ran past us, one brandishing a blade and blood across his chest. We hung back near a store owner to keep out the way and as two lads went past the store owner asked them to walk us to Safety.
The rest of
the walk was uneventful and we were soon in the hotel.
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