Memories of Morocco - Part IV - Dadès Gorges

Kasbah

Day two of the cycling tour promised to be even better than the first. We walked across the road and down a path that led to the river. Scotty wanted to cross the river barefoot but we opted for the quick and easy route: over the footbridge. We followed a narrow path along the foothill which was lined with fabrics, jewellery and artwork for sale. “Just look, good price!” The path wound its way around and up to an opening in the wall. From there it wasn’t far to the top. From this vantage point, you could get a 360° view of the surrounding valley.

A gentleman sat in the shade playing an odd guitar-like instrument. For the privilege of taking his picture, he expected, and got, payment. On the way up, Anne and I were attracted to some paintings that were created using saffron and tea. By heating the paper, the colour emerged from the painting: saffron became a brownish yellow that depicted the camels and desert background appropriately. We returned to the artist’s hut to purchase some of his work.

After the visiting the Kasbah, we once again loaded into the vans and set off to our next starting point. It was a beautiful, warm day suitable for riding in shorts and short sleeves. We were let out in a parking lot in Taslmante Valley. The riding was hilly but not as high elevation as the first day. The lowlands were rubble arid expanses leading to the highlands. A couple of hours later we stopped near a river for lunch under the trees. Some local boys and girls looked on as Steve worked on his bicycle while lunch was being prepared. I engaged one boy in a sparring match.

Sparring

After lunch we headed back down the road and turned up the mountain on our first dirt road. It led along the hillside through a village. The road opened onto rolling hills. The road was hard-packed dirt and rocks and sometimes dipped and curved into small, dry streambeds. It was fun to ride. I waited for Adboul to catch up before moving on. Good thing because he knew where the nomads caves that we were going to visit were located. I would have ridden right past, the caves being hidden below the level of the road. The nomads were expecting us for tea.

Some time later, Scotty arrived pumped telling me how well Donna and Steve were negotiating the tricky dirt roads. No sooner had he said this one of the support vans arrived carrying injured passengers: Donna wiped out and sustained a deep gouge along her forearm; Steve fell and broke several ribs. A very unfortunate conclusion to a grand day of riding. They bypassed the nomad experience to take care of their injuries.

We went inside the cave and sat around its perimeter while they poured mint tea in small glasses. Abdoul and Adboul 2 (the driver/cook) were showing the old man some pictures on their phone. But his eyesight was failing so I lent him my clic-it glasses that I wore around my neck. What an anachronism!

When we left the hospitality of the nomads, Scotty and I took off down a long descent while the others followed in the van. Scotty had Evelyn’s GoPro camera attached to his helmet so I led the way. It was getting late and the temperature was dropping so I borrowed Adboul’s blue windbreaker. It was good contrast to the red rock all around us. The descent was a gas but not long enough. We rode into the town of Youl until the van pulled over and we had to get in. Daylight was running short and we had to get to the next town, Dadès Gorges, before dark.

Dadès Gorges was breathtakingly beautiful, road contoured the river, both etched their way between the towering walls of rock on either side.

We arrived at Hotel Babylon Dadès which overlooked a river below and a massive mountain face on the opposite side. Although the hotel was fairly new, built into the rock wall, it had amazing ambiance like, I imagine, something from past. Decorative floor lamps created mood lighting down the halls and the stairways. The faucets were made from kettles tipped down towards the sinks. These were lined up outside the toilets. The doorways, windows and mirrors were lined with stonework and topped off with archways. Many of the walls had embedded stones. We were lucky to be spending two nights here.