Our drive to the Dades Gorge takes us through more incredible landscapes.
As we enter Boulmalne Dades, the small city at the opening of the Gorge, and make our way through the windy road that leads up through the river valley, the view become more and more interesting.
The sun has left the Gorge in shade by the time we arrive at our accommodation and it is much cooler here than at the edge of the desert.
We have a day of exploring and follow the road into the mountains as far as we can go in our two wheel drive car.
People in disguise as piles of grass
Before the sun sets, Jasper, Stella and I walk up a gorge, which is right opposite our hotel, that feeds into the larger river gorge of the Dades.
Our drive the next day takes us back out of the Gorge and along the base of the Atlas Mountains to the Fint Oasis near Ouazarzate.
We spend more than an hour in a bank in Ouazarzate, trying to print out Stella’s NCEA Te Reo Maori exam that she has to sit while we are in Marrakech. Printers are hard to come by and when we see one, we usually take advantage. Being entrusted with Stella’s exam is a big responsibility and a reminder that we are still tied to the real world!
Here lays another little resort in the middle of a desert landscape. I had no idea that the hotel was in the middle of an Oasis on a rough gravel road but we are not disappointed as we make the drive, that takes us through a fairly traditional Moroccan village to our hotel. There are a number of villages on motorbikes, waiting at the top of the road that leads down to the river. From the look of the hastily cast aside signs for the two other hotels in the valley, they wait to guide mislead tourists to the wrong hotel. Luckily we have google maps, which takes us over a ford in the river, past a number of women doing their washing, to La Terrasse des Delices.
We all enjoy some time in the sun, looking out across the Oasis, then go for a walk up the river valley but after getting caught in a sand storm, we return home.
From our breakfast spot in the morning, we watch a group of women on a Moroccan Yoga Tour, practising their morning yoga and local women on their donkeys.
After one night in the Flint Oasis, we make the big drive over the Atlas mountains and down into Marrakech.
It is cold up in the mountains and the journey is slow.
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