Blogs from Zagora, Souss-Massa-Draâ, Morocco, Africa

A small date stone props up the water jar ~ Moroccan Proverb HE SAID... Today we were travelling southeast from Ait Benhaddou to Zagora (via Ouarzazate). After a quick visit to a women’s carpet weaving cooperative down the road from our hotel, we piled into a minibus and left the quiet dusty village of Ait Benhaddou at 9:30am. We were travelling to the city of Ouarzazate (a mere 30km away), but a last minute change of plan saw us detour into the Atlas Film Studios, which are located on the outskirts of Ouarzazate. We were given the option of a guided tour of the studios, but we declined. We opted instead to relax in the internal courtyard of Hotel Oscar while we waited for our film-buff travellers to complete their tour. The hotel was conveniently located ... read more

Geo: 30.33, -5.86"Holy Hell I look like Shrek!" was my response on waking with the jarring Call to Prayer and stumbling into the bathroom. My eyelids had swollen to twice their normal size - I had woken several times during the night, coughing and sneezing, but assumed that this was the remnants of the cold that had been plaguing me for the entire trip. It would now appear that there had been some form of allergen in the room - animal hair would be my first culprit, followed closely by feathers - both guaranteed to leave me looking like David Guest after 8 rounds with Tyson. I prised my eyes open long enough to stagger out of the door and appreciate the sun rising majestically over Ait Ben Haddou from our terrace before heading to the ... read more

Geo: 30.33, -5.86Salut tout le monde,Quelle journée, du paradis à un autre paradis tout en passant par l'enfer.Commencons par notre soirée d'hier. La famille que nous pensions dérangante ont été super le fun. Papa et ses 3 enfants (des francais), ont bavardé avec nous puis le frère de la proprio est venue nous jouer de la musique berbère. Nous avons jouer aussi, dansé. Nous avons eu droit à un costume (enfin des jellabas, des robes pour les femmes avec le foulard sur la tête, Bien la je ressemblait vraiment a Fatima (comme on m'avait déjà appelé avec Réjean.)Ils nous ont préparé un repas digne d'un maharadja. Un couscous incroyable et franchement trop gros pour deux.Les jeunes ont eu vraiment du plaisirs avec nos niaseries que nous avons f... read more

Well after finally managing to tear ourselves away from the pool, we picked a route to Merzouga in Erg Chebbi via Afroud in the Saharra. I plugged the co-ordinates for the dessert stop another overlander, Mac had given us and it recognised the route we had looked at on the map so off we went. The route to Afroud was really good as the views were different again with the road dipping down and across a river bed, where the river had erroded the sides to look like a mini grand canyon. At the end of the road it joined a main road which was interesting as we saw our first dunes, and Afroud was nothing special, just another town that has a main road run through it. Just ouside of Merzouga the Sat nav didn't ... read more

Shortly after we left Ouarzazate, I started to get a chilling feeling in my gut. My head began to spin and the road was bumpy. I started to think that a late night trek into the Sahara might not be the best idea ever conceived. I open the window, clawing for fresh air. I was nauseated and weak, but not wanting to be a baby, sat in the back seat staring out at the darkness and wondering where the sand dunes were. I didn't see any and I worried about how long we would drive into the night. We passed Zagora and veered away from civilization. I kept quiet, with my eyes out the window looking for a nice, quiet, dark place to die alone. I started to think, what have we done? I am dying ... read more