drinking from the bottle

We left Tafraoute early in the morning via 4wd and made our way through the desert to the south…

We passed Napoleon’s hat and stopped at the painted rocks, an art project created by a Belgian painter in 1984.

Basically he came out into the desert and painted a whole lot of rocks… I thought he was just an environmental vandal and I’m still not sure but he definitely had some dedication… The rocks are massive ands not like there’s a Bunnings down the road somewhere.

Next we drove up through the mountains we had seen the day before from the top of the hat.

At the top we turned off road and drove for another 30km across a rocky plain that leads to Ait Mansour Gorge, which I like to call the Moroccan grand canyon.

We drove down into the gorge and stopped for a picnic lunch, after which our driver gave us two hours to walk forwards down the gorge, where he would collect us later in the day.

The gorge is filled with tiny villages that house a few Berber families each. I don’t know how they managed to construct so many buildings, in such a remote location and all perched on the side of the canyon walls but they have been there for hundreds of years and don’t show any signs of weakness.

At the first village we passed, a group of about fifteen small children followed us for a couple of kilometres down the gorge, asking us for candy and money… When they eventually understood that penny was trying to tell them we had nothing but a bottle of water, one of the older girls wanted to drink from it… When we let her, all the other kids wanted to drink from it… I think it became a game of dares for them.

Mind you, none of them actually drunk.. They just put the bottle in their mouths. Fun for them but we didn’t really feel like we could safely drink from our bottles after out had been in the mouth of 10+ desert children.

Disappointingly for me, when i finally took out my camera to take a photo they all freaked out, told me no, turned their backs and ran back to their village.

As we approached the next village we heard a kitten crying from a tree near the road… We walked over to investigate and he came out and wanted some attention.

The Moroccans love cats… They are everywhere here and seem generally well fed, even the scabby ones. We have taken a cue from the locals and when we finish a meal we feed the scraps to whatever restaurant or street cats are lurking around.

This little guy was obviously a town pet… He was very well looked after and followed us right into town where he was picked up by one of the village kids.

We passed a couple more small villages before our driver picked us up and we headed out of the gorge.

It was one of the more unique places we’ve visited…. Very authentic and not at all touristy. Just people going about their lives away from the hustle and bustle of the world… I don’t think I could live without my technology (and running water!) but I thought it would be nice to try… Just hanging out on the side of a cliff watching the rocks change color as the sun washes over them. I think it would be a simple and calming way to live… until I needed to Google something or have a hot shower.

Back on the main road we headed to the town of Tata to spend the night.

Tomorrow, we’re off to the Sahara…