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Published: March 9th 2008
I woke up around 7am, the streets were quiet and empty. I went upstairs towards the terrace where the hotel served breakfast, looking at what they offered and how much it cost I decided not to have it. Bread, jam and coffee for Dhm20 not even an omlette, no way.
I walked towards the Taourirt Kasbah, went inside for Dhm10 and checked it out. I met this french couple at the Kasbah who told me about Al-Mansour ed-Dahabi dam.
I had breakfast off the street nearby, Harira and Omlette is becoming my regular diet now that I have stopped eating fish.
It was about a 3km walk and I did not see any dam although I did see something that resemmbled a lake. However while getting there I passed a village with children playing football and people doing there daily chores and lots of house building.
One builder was kind enough to let me climb to the first floor of the house he was in, so that I could have a view. There was a beautiful looking village far away. At that point I decided that I was going to cross the field and walk to the
village. Before I crossed the field I decided to walk a little further on in case there was some kind of a dam but nope didn’t see any dam. While I was walking I stopped by a house to talk to some guys to make sure I was going in the right direction. They didnt understand English however fortunately their brother who did speak English and worked at the reception of one of the big hotels returned from work at that very moment, he invited me to his house for a cup of tea and some food, I drank tea but said I had just had breakfast.
When I asked him where el-mansour was he said that isn’t here but then I figured that he may not have understood what I was asking because in the guidebook it was clearly in that direction and maybe I didn’t know what to look for.
I went quite near the lake and then decided to turn back and cross the field which looked like a paddy field to the pretty village I had seen. While walking I came across a river which was somewhat dry but there were still streams of
water I had to cross and the area around was quite boggy.
There were a few Kasbahs in this village and life in the village seemed extremely slow. I did annoy a few people while taking photographs.
I later got on to the main road to find my way back to Ouarzazate as I was not going to go back on the same route I got here.
I tried to hitchhike as there were no buses on that route and vehicles were very few. No one stopped; apparently in Morocco its not a popular thing to hitchike. A few vehicles passed me by no one stopped but one van stopped for me. The driver was a black person and he asked me where I was going and when I mentioned my destination he menioned another destination. I figured that he could drop me somewhere nearby or a place where I can get a taxi which is exactly what he did.
I got back to the hotel and then went to the Atlas Studios. I saw the sets they created for Kundun, Jewel of the Nile, Mummy 2, Cleopatra, Gladiator and many more. Nearby I also saw
the set for Kingdom of Heaven which belongs to another studio. I met two Moroccon guys Dris and Amin both architects who had come to Ouarzazate on work but had decided to checkout this place after their work.
The Kingdom of Heave set was closed as they were preparing for a movie the following week with Leornado De Caprio. Amin had a chat with the caretaker and he said we can have quick view of the place while the caretaker climbed a nearby fortress a part of the set to make sure no one was coming.
Afterwards we took a taxi back to Ouarzazate. Dris said he likes to travel and was quite pleased to learn about Hospitalityclub which he wanted to become a member of. Amin said he is married and travelling was not quite an option.
After we got back to the centre, Amin and Dris bought me dinner and then we walked in the square area and then I said bye to them. I later went and checked email and got back to the hotel around 12 midnight.
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