Morocco Tour Day 3: Dra'a Valley

After breakfast we set off up the Dades Gorge for a few kilometres until we came to a spectacular series of hairpin bends where we were one of several tour groups taking photos. We were happy that Hassan was doing the driving and not us as we first drove up and then back down the gorge.

Soon we turned off the paved road and headed into the stony desert to meet some real nomadic Berbers. Their home was a series of shelters built under the ground to escape the desert heat alongside stone pens where they kept their infant goats safe from predators. We drank tea (only us as the locals were all observing Ramadan) and gave them our packet of dried apricots as a gift (Ismail said they didn't use or want money). We also did the goats milk run as a favour, dropping off their milk in the town to save one of the daughters a long trip with their Donkey.

Sam meeting one of the young goats

Samuel and Ismail looking at the underground house

In the afternoon we drove down the Dra'a valley, one of inland Morocco's larger wadis (the water in the valley eventually dissipates into the desert and on to the spectacular Kasbah Tamnougalte. The Kasbah (fortress) is the oldest in the valley and still partly occupied (some was ruined). We toured the courtyard and then climbed up to the top floors where Ismail pointed out where people used to eat, sleep and study and explained some of the unusual tools and implements that were used by those who dwelled in the Kasbah.

Our accommodation tonight was in Agdez. We had the "penthouse" right at the top of the Riad, which afforded some spectacular views of the town and surrounding desert, valley and hills.

Our penthouse suite from the outside looks like something from the Flintstones...

With an amazingly beautiful interior

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