After a very restful night sleep in the desert we awake to bright sunshine but there’s still a sandstorm in the air and Brownie is not taking any chances when she walks over to the mess tent fully prepared for the elements. We enjoy a delicious breakfast of Berber omlettes (they include olives, tastes great), pancakes, fruit, yoghurt and cake. Probably the best breakfast we’ve had so far on this trip.
Morning sandstorm
With just overnight bags to pack it’s a fairly orderly departure this morning @ 9.30am, yes another late start. There is one exception to our relaxed departure however, in order to leave our luxury camp we are required to climb a dune to get to our 4WD. Its not the workout we wanted first thing in the morning but hey how often do you have to climb a sand dune in order to get to your transport. It’s another road day and one full of surprises. Map below shows just how close we get to the border with Algeria and it’s interesting to note that the border between the two countries has been closed since 1994 something that I wasn’t aware of. Entry is only available via air or sea for Moroccans for trade or travel.
We make our way out of the desert and rejoin our bus in Merzouga. Overnight bags loaded we’re headed for the oasis of Tinghir. Our first stop and a real surprise is the Jorf Khettaras in the Tafilalet Valley. Underground tunnels, or khettaras, have been transporting water throughout Morocco’s harsh landscapes for millennia allowing communities to settle in the Anti-Atlas Mountains where rains are scarce for much of the year. Khettaras are traditional irrigation systems used in the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa for some 2500 years. The winding underground tunnels rely on gravity, collecting groundwater upstream at a higher elevation and sending it downstream where the water table is lower. It’s not clear who built the first of these canals, but a number of historians point to the ancient Persians. The system spread to Morocco during the Islamic conquest in the eighth century. The most startling fact about this engineering marvel is that the construction method of each khettara is simple and traditional. Workers used picks, spades, and baskets to dig in the channel while a pulley and a winch operated by foot made it possible to bring up the spoils from shafts in the ground at regular intervals. We explore the khettaras amazed at the mastery of the excavation and the importance of the channels. It’s a fantastic opportunity to take a huge step back in time into an important era in Moroccan history. Human ingenuity is and continues to be simply quite incredible.
The bus continues through the valley and we stop for lunch at a Moroccan buffet restaurant. After lunch we walk for about 10 minutes from the restaurant to a Museum in El Khorbat that is within a ksar (fortified village). El Khorbat is a ksar – fortified village – built in 1860 and is still inhabited. It’s a spectacular example of a mid-19th-century fortified village that was sadly crumbling to dust but has undergone a major restoration using traditional techniques and materials. Today, around half of the dwellings are still inhabited, while others have been turned into a 22-room museum, a guesthouse, a restaurant, and a women’s craft workshop. The primary aim is to preserve the history and culture of ksar as a way of life through sustainable tourism to the benefit of the whole community. We visit the Oasis Museum, which pays homage to the local culture. The museum is a fascinating and unique time capsule documenting life through artefacts used in daily life – cooking, weaving, agriculture, defence, festivals, and celebrations – alongside pictures, maps, plans and sketches. Ksar El Khorbat is reached by an arcade-shaped doorway. It has a rectangular form that is crossed by a central alley, from which various alleys connect to the houses. We wander the alleys which are empty and quite imposing – feel like an extra in a Hitchcock film not knowing who’s going to appear at any moment. It would certainly make a brilliant film location. The structures stand around 14m in height and are composed of several floors. The entire structure is surrounded by a thick 12m high wall with 9 watchtowers. It’s an incredible piece of living history and yet another opportunity today to set back into more Moroccan history. I could’ve stayed longer exploring it really was quite a remarkable place.
We leave the museum and as we reboard the bus it starts to pour with rain and there was us thinking we’d left this weather behind. We’re now headed for our destination for tonight at Tinghir where we’ll be staying for 2 nights. Located in the heart of the Todra Valley, between the High Atlas and the Jebel Sahro, extends the magnificent palmeraie – palm grove of hundreds of palm trees – of Tinghir. The city, an old French garrison, is built around a rock outcrop and dominated by the ruins of the ancient Glaoui palace.
We arrive at our hotel and the view from our room is glorious. The air is cool and clear and there’s snow on the Atlas Mountains, wow! We completely unpack our bags as mine particularly resembles a jack in a box that won’t quite go back into its box. We also seem to have gained a large quantity of sand and that needs to be shaken from our shoes. We love these road trips but occasionally you just need some time to get your house back in order and tonight that’s exactly what we’ll be doing.
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