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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3024 |
2nd January 2012 Hiking - Walking: Telouet-Morocco Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: We arrive at Telouet and stay for 2 nights and have a guide to take us on a 12 mile hike to a saltmine :) Monday 2 January 2012 We slept really well and Aissa brought us breakfast in the sunny courtyard where the very skinny kittens were sunbathing. He took us for a tour of the local Kasbah which is unusual in that it still has one section complete and the beautiful opulent decorative mosaics and ironwork in place. He gave us a broad history of the place with special emphasis being given to the rooms where the ‘chief’ kept his four wives. The rest of the Kasbah was ruined but still a spectacle to see. He had organised for someone in the village to give us a guided walk to a saltmine and after buying the usual bread and laughing cow picnic we set off with Abt-Lakul for what turned out to be a 5 hour and 12 mile hike through hills, valleys and local villages. It started by walking miles up the asphalt road and we were a bit worried but it was actually spectacular. The working salt mine was amazing with men using gas lamps, pick axing huge lumps of salty rock from the walls of an enormous cave and wheeling it to the small entrance with worn out wheelbarrows. The air inside was so salty you could taste it. They were very happy to see us and show us what they were doing. Suddenly someone started whooping, making a definite get out of here noise and we all ran to the entrance. Just got outside and there was a muffled explosion as more red salty rock was loosened for them to continue work. We decided not to go back in and set off back the way we had come and ate our picnic in a sheltered spot in the hills. Our guide then took us in a different direction and through the valley to another village with a spectacular Kasbah. It was great to see real Berber village life with the children playing, carrying their baby brothers and sisters on their backs, the women washing the clothes in the river and drying them on prickly bushes, people with their flocks of sheep/goats and working in the fields (on their mobile phones of course!). We were taken back to the village and had to visit cousin Mohammed’s (the local Dell boy?) warehouse but we managed to escape buying a carpet by pleading tiredness! We discovered that Aissa had gone to the dessert with some Scandinavian tourists so his cousin Joet was our host and took us back to Dar Aissa for a Tajine of couscous and vegetables with a whole roast chicken on the top! Wonderful fresh oranges for dessert. Joet stayed with us for most of the evening making up the fire etc., but when he had gone we played cards and had a nice evening. Tuesday 3 January 2012 Another lovely breakfast in the sun then as we were leaving we got a call on Joet’s mobile from Aissa in the dessert asking if we had enjoyed our stay and making sure everything was ok:) Moved on from Talouet and drove down a wonderful valley road towards Ait-Benhaddou – a town with a huge Kasbah where Gladiator was filmed. This valley had a Kasbah on every corner, lush vegetation and crops and a river which actually had water running through it. The sad thing was that every village was inaccessible unless you wanted to walk down to it and in hind sight we wished we had made the effort. However, when we reached Ait-Benhaddou we walked down to the river and across the stepping stones to access the village within the Kasbah walls. It went up and up with many shops selling the usual colourful Moroccan souvenirs and crafts. There was a building right at the top which we walked to then sat and had a rest and looked at the amazing scenery surrounding us, mountains, some with snow and red hills and rocks. In fact, someone we spoke to said it was just like Ayrs Rock in Australia. On the way down we did some bartering to buy a throw, our tactic of carrying on walking down the steps worked in that the shop keeper ended up running down the steps after us and agreeing to our price:) Hannah really wanted a rug and made a great decision to ask at this particular shop because the owner had been an extra in the Gladiator movie, showed them all his photos, his mock sword and dagger, introduced his wife, took them up to see his sheep on the roof of his house and even cut the rug they liked in half because it was a little bigger than they wanted! This made their purchase very memorable:) We missed this as we had moved further down the village. We ate our picnic by the river before returning to the car and taking photos of men with snakes and camels! Consulted the map and realised that the original tour plan was far too optimistic as the scale of the map doesn’t really convey the reality of the size of the country and the state of the roads! Made the decision to drive to the coast and set off through beautiful mountainous scenery, skirted round Marrakech and found the long dual carriageway to Essaouiria. It took us a long time and was over 200 miles. We arrived about 10p.m. and couldn’t believe the state of the place! The outskirts were filthy with rubbish everywhere and cows eating the rubbish from bin bags. We couldn’t even find a road that lead us to the sea but shining like a beacon of cleanliness was a newly built Ibis Hotel. Mag was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of a night of warm luxury so although it was more than we had been paying we checked in to a beautiful room for around £40 a night with breakfast – still really cheap by British standards:) The room was very white, comfortable with en-suite bathroom with walk in shower. Bliss. Photo Gallery 1 here Photo Gallery 2 here |
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