Gorgeous Gorges

Click here to see our entire Gorgeous Gorges album (92 pictures)

After our desert adventure we split up with Sabine who went back to Marrakech to meet up with Red. Jerome and I went with the driver and drove all the way across the center of Morocco up to Meknes. It was a two day, 400km journey through the High Atlas mountains which is a very beautiful and often winding route.

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We started the day by going to a famous old casbah which had been heavily restored to its 14th century glory. It was set up a bit like a museum so they had many old artifacts that they told us all about. Some of the really interesting ones included wooden locks and keys, a traditional bread oven, and olive presses. It was very informative and neat to see. The casbah itself is pictured on the old 50dh bill, which I can't find online. We drove past a big golf course which felt very out of place in the dry and brown surroundings. We drove through a palmerie where the trees were giant and they made very interesting fences and things out of the palm leaves. We then drove through the Valley of the Roses. Unfortunately it wasn't the right time of year for all the roses to be in bloom, but when they are it is apparently breathtaking.

One of the great things about doing this journey was that we got to see two famous gorges in Morocco - The Dades Gorge and the Todgha Gorge. The Dades Gorge is a very famous mountain pass with high walls, and an extremely winding section of road leading to it. The picture at the top of this post is of that road. It can be seen in car commercials. We walked along the bottom of the gorge, and drove along the valley for quite a while. There is a river flowing along the middle of the valley so that is where all the crops are grown. It is very beautiful with the tall red rocks on each side of lush green crops. We  then stayed over near Tinghir at a really great casbah called Chez Pierre. It was really awesome especially for seeming to be in the middle of nowhere. And the food was great! They also had a swimming pool that was excessively cold!

The next day we set out really early since we had the longest stretch ahead of us, and the driver was feeling nervous about finishing the drive before dark. We started the day by going out to the Todgha Gorge which is another big and well known gorge. It was just as beautiful as the Dades Gorge. It is very well known by rock climbers and we saw a whole pack of them scaling one of the faces! The rest of the drive was a succession of beautiful vistas as we drove up and down and around in the mountains. At one point we came across a huge lake which was gorgeous and felt transplanted among all the rock. and in the middle of the mountains.

We made it to Meknes before dark and without any problems. We saw some interesting vehicles on the way too. Many farm trucks seem to have been modified to double deckers and are used to transport sheep and people back and forth!

Click here to see our entire Gorgeous Gorges album (92 pictures)

As a final note, here are a few Cadillac commercials that show you the interesting roads that we drove through. Don't worry we went very slowly and didn't do any of this crazy stuff. But the views you get of the roads from the helicopter give a great sense of how crazy the roads are.

Second Night in the Desert

Click here to see our entire Second night in the desert album (78 pictures)

Our last post left us in M'hamid after our first night in the desert and camel ride. We headed out in our 4x4 to Erg Chicaga which has some of the largest sand dunes in Morocco and is fairly close to the border with Algeria. This took place on October 6th and 7th.

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Our first stop on the drive was a water source where we waited for another group to head into the desert. It was a neat little oasis area, with palm trees, camels, a friendly donkey, and frogs in the stream that seemed to appear from nowhere. Along the way we saw many signs of the rains from the night before in the form of interesting cracked patterns in the sand and very large puddles.

With the other car joining us, we headed out into the sands. It was interesting as there were no signs or markings, and so the drivers must have known the routes from experience and memory. We had to take a few detours though due to large areas covered in water, and ended up getting lost. We stopped at a few nomad camps to ask for directions to our camp. We finally arrived only to find that the storm the night before had collapsed all the sleeping huts, and so we were directed to another camp further on. Our driver was getting fairly anxious at this point, as he didn't know the way to this new camp and the sun was setting. But we met up with the final car from our group who knew the way. We got there with no problems, except one of the trucks getting stuck in the mud and having to push it out. Not a common occurrence in the Sahara it seems!

Upon arrival at the camp we took a quick hike up through the tall dunes to catch the last of the sunset, and then had an interesting time finding our way back in the dark. There was singing around a big oil lamp while we waited for dinner to be ready. Jerome and I went to a nearby dune and watched the most spectacular lightning storm I've ever seen in the distance in the pure dark of the desert. We watched the storm get closer, and dinner was served inside, just as the rain and wind hit the camp. It was a very impressive sight with the driving rain and wind being illuminated periodically by big flashes of lightning and rolling thunder. We were all quite happy to be huddled together in the concrete building. 

After dinner, the storm moved away, and the clouds cleared to reveal an impressive array of stars. With no lights in the vicinity you could see so many more stars than we're used to in the cities. We brought out some carpets and blankets and set up a little area along the side of the building and layed stargazing. We saw several shooting stars including one extreme one, that left a trail across the whole sky for several seconds. We eventually fell asleep out under the stars and had a lovely sleep until one of the guides came over to let us know that if we got up we could see the sunrise over the dunes. And so we did! We walked along the dunes which were lit by the low red light, and took many pictures of the sun rising over the dunes, and the neat shadows they made. We hiked for at least an hour enjoying the peace and beauty. Along the way we came across some impressive mud puddles with super fine mud that was almost impossible to get off you. Jerome played in several of the puddles. We also found some neat silvery ants and some interesting plants and birds. 

When we got back to camp, we found that breakfast had been made and our share was left at the table sitting up on a dune. We ate up, and then had to pack up and head out. Some of the other guests were rather annoyed about the storms and that the trip wasn't quite the hot, sunny, dry experience they had envisioned. We on the other hand felt very lucky to have been there, as these were the first days of rain in the area in 6 years! Needless to say all the locals were very happy with the rain. The drive back to M'Hamid was interesting as there were huge areas of sand which were now covered in water and so we had to navigate carefully to avoid getting stuck. There were even reports of a big bridge nearby being flooded out. We made our way back to the Hotel Riad Ouarzazate where we had stayed before leaving for the desert. One the way we stopped at a local pottery shop which had interesting wares, and then had lovely warm showers to try and get all the sand off of us, did some laundry, had a nice dinner, video chatted home and joined our parents' enjoying their thanksgiving dinner, and then made our plans for the next few days which I'll post about soon!

Click here to see our entire Second night in the desert album (78 pictures)

Packing List

We've had quite a lot of requests for more information about what we packed. I'll go through everything that made our final list, and add some notes to things we didn't use, or would've changed.

We packed everything into two 60L bags. They were a bit overkill for the amount of stuff we had, but we already had them, and didn't really think it was justifiable to get another set of packs. We didn't ever really find them too big to carry around, and it meant we had room to spare for souvenirs etc. As Jerome mentioned in an earlier post, we used packing cubes which made living out of backpacks very easy. We had two sets, one yellow, one orange, so that we could easily tell what was in each one, and it was simple to just pull out what we needed even if we were at a train station.

GENERAL THINGS
Ziplock bags - Small, medium, and a few 2.5Gallon Ziploc bags, we used them alot! 
Silk sleeping bag liners - Didn't use these as often as we thought, but were handy to have. 
Swiss army knife - Used for many things!
Travel clothes line - Used this to dry our clothes in many places we stayed.
Quick Drying Towels
Day pack - We had one small day backpack that we used that fit into our big packs on travel days. 
Lock and lock wire - For securing our packs. We never used it - and probably wouldn't bring again.
Money Belt - Also never used it. 
Notebook and pens/pencil - Used to keep a daily log of all our adventures. 
Playing Cards - Didn't use until the last week, and then used alot! 
A watch
Wallets
Passports
Metal Travel Mug - Useful for water and tea when we were staying places with no dishes.
Package of Tea filters - So we could make our own tea anywhere.
Small Pocket Notebook - Had removable pages, really handy for notes and directions
Kit of useful things in an Altoid Tin - Included: Sewing Kit, binder clips, caribeanners, safety pins.
 - We didn't have very much use for them this time, but I'd bring it again. 

TOILETRIES - All contained in a toiletries bag that hangs up
Sunscreen
Toothpaste
Toothbrushes
spf lipbalm
Shampoo - We started w/ 2 travel bottles and added from hotels 
Nail clippers
Razor
Hairbrush
Hair elastics, band
Hand sanitizer
Dental Floss
Laundry soap - Liquid woolite which worked well until it exploded, we'll go powder next time. 
Deoderants
Advil
Bar soap in container - We bought more soap along the way as we ran out
Toothbrush holder(s)
Kleenex - Brought 6 small packages, stocked up as needed 
Electric Razor - So Jerome could shave easily with no shaving cream. 

ELECTRONICS

Power adapter - Multi adapter for all the plugs
Extension cord/splitter - A 3' cord that split 1 into 3 outlets 
Chargers for things - Phones and Camera
Cameras - We brought 2, it was really handy to be able to get both our points of view. 
Phones - After debate we each brought our phones, which was good as one broke. We were able to buy sim cards almost everywhere we went, to give us maps and information we needed. 
Small flashlight - Small windup one. Came in very handy on many occassions. 
Small tripod - Fit in Jerome's pocket, and helped us take some great night photos. 
Extra Camera batteries and cards - We brought 4 camera batteries (both camera's take the same ones) as well as 3 32GB cards and 1 4GB card. We bought another 32GB Card on the way. 
Earbuds -  A pair for each of us
Pouch for cords etc - Had a small pouch to hold all of this stuff
Extra phone batteries - We had second batteries for our phones. 

Before Trip

LAURA'S CLOTHES
Note: Everything but the golf shirt was quick dry. 
Rain Jacket
Flip flops
2 Smartwool next to skin T-shirts
4 pairs Ex Officio underwear
5 pairs socks
2 pairs long pants - including 1 pair of zip offs
Swimsuit
1 pair of Shorts
2 Button up T Shirts
1 Golf Shirt
2 bras, + 1 sports bra
1 Tank top
1 Zip up light fleece hoodie
1 Dressy jacket
Running Shoes

JEROME'S CLOTHES
Note: Everything was quick dry. 
Rain Jacket
Flip Flops
4 pairs Ex-officio boxers
5 pairs of socks
2 pairs pants - including 1 pair of 1 zip offs
1 pair Shorts/bathing trunks
1 Smartwool Next to Skin Long sleeved Shirt
2 Northface quickdry t-shirts
3 collared T-shirts
1 long sleeved shirt
Running Shoes

After Trip

THINGS WE ACQUIRED ALONG THE WAY

These teas we got in London and Switzerland at the start of our trip and we carried them with us and drank them throughout our whole trip. They migrated between our backpacks. 

Some delicious tea from Mariage Freres in Paris. We didn't open this on the trip. 

It was carried in Laura's backpack. 

Wooden dice to play backgammon with, and a tiny wooden turtle I got for my Birthday in Hallstatt. 

The dice were carried in Jerome's pocket and well used, and the tiny turtle was carried inside the Marriage Freres tea tin. 

Two tiny containers of salt from the Hallstatt salt mine - the oldest in the world! 

They came in handy in Italy when we both caught a cold and used the salt for gargling! 

 

A pair of small wine/liqueur glasses from Prague. 

Carried in Laura's backpack carefully wrapped up in socks.

A very well packed carpet from Morocco. Which was carried in Laura's backpack

A neat expanding chess set from Morocco that was carried in Jerome's Backpack

 A cool damascene plate from Morocco. Carried in Jerome's backpack wrapped in our desert scarves. 

 Cactus silk thread from Morocco. Carried in Laura's Backpack.

Shortbread from Marks & Spencers in London picked up on our way home. 

We stocked up on tea from Twinings in London before we came back too! 

 And some Harrod's Tea too.

And on the recommendation of Jerome's Aunt Kathleen, we picked up this amazing plum pudding which we brought home and ate at Christmas with our family!