Left Todra Gorge and headed over Tizi n Tichka pass over 2260 metre high: What a spectcular drive. tight corners and quite a bit of traffic made passing slow and interesting and fossill sellers on bends and places you would not expzect or even be able to stop. Had lunch at another dusty smoky male only town, god knows where the females are, but not in restaurnts: bought some fresh fruit for a change from tajine.
We arrived at Ait Ben Haddou the kasbah site of many films including Gladiator: Sunset drinks were enjoyed on the top terrace after a walk thru the kasbah: More quaint but ensuited accomodation with the host Action Couscous as he had 15 minutes of fame as an extra in Prince of Persia starring Brad Pitt: this guy posed for photoes qll night and we had a Morrocan cooking lesson with him and sister; would never make it to television: lovely breakfast on the terrace and on the road again....
Heading towards the hightest peak in North Africa the roads left a lot to be desired,Bbel was filmed on part of this road; we went thru valleys with streams in the bottom and almst a ford to really high steep climbs and single lane tarseal: anyway after 5 hours we ended up at the end of the tarseal and 4 of us mounted our mules: We all took daypacks only and headed up towards Mt Toubkal: These really were goat tracks and very steep. People trek for a xeek or 2 or more from this town of Imlil: very international point) our host Hussein guided us up the mountain for one hour: His house gets two feet of snow on it in winter: He lives with his family, parents, and couple of brothers families. He is a real entertainzer and very hospitable: Home cooked dinner was enjoyed in the living room and we shared four bedrooms, one shower one toilet plus one squat that we have still managed to avoid. Some trekked up the mountaing for a few hours while we walked up into the village across the dry river bed and saw he local kids, housewives, elderly, goats etc. Very steep village paths/tracks.
After another home cooked lunch we mountzed our mules, feeling very special and trekked back down to Imlil.c Some of the corners on the zigzags were don,t look down corners it was very steep. Thank god for 4 legged transport. They work really hard taking huge loads.
Dozens of trinket sellers pester and hover everywhere even in these remote parts. So this afternnon we head to the seasire town of Esouira on the Atlantic Coast.......
