boumalne dades to tinerhir (for the todra gorge)

wednesday: very peaceful last night and the sky was fantastic, super starry! (no light pollution up here!).
had spag. bol. for tea and watched a dvd (nice) - had been quite a long travel day!
not too cold when we woke up, but had the heater on for a bit (before the sun got round to us).
p working this am, c pottering and then - after lunch - we plan to scooter through the gorge, which
should be amazing, winding roads and great views, and then treat ourselves with another tagine for tea!
a bit later on wednesday....ALL CHANGE!
p got the scoot off all ready for our trip to the gorge (after working all am), c finished up on the internet -
and then one of the guides, working out of the hotel, came over sheepishly to tell us that 1) no tagine for
later on, and 2) we had to leave the site, to make way for the huge french party they had coming.....we
think it might be the same one that invaded agdz! : (
we were disappointed on both counts really as had we known in advance that it was going to happen
we wouldn't have had such a relaxed am, or got the scoot off (its a bit of a palarva!).
anyway....we decided to quickly pack up and get going, at which time the guide started to say we could
stay etc. etc.
we left!
headed for tinerhir, another village at the start of another set of gorges - the todra gorges.
for the first part of the journey we were back on the road we had already been on, through the start of the
dades gorge, so we feel that we did see some of it at least.....the dades gorge is famous for its red/pink
rocks that look like melted wax, and also for its many ruined kasbah's....we did see some of both!
once out of the gorge we were immediately back in the 'desert' but the journey was relatively quick and we
arrived in tinerhir after about an hour.
pretty large town, moulded into the red landscape.....took a turn towards the gorges and found the campsite,
auberge camping atlas, its gorgeous! v. small site, only a few vans here and not much room for too many
others, def. not the 20+ french group! ha ha.
have found a sunny spot and settled in. it has a really lovely feel to it so we are rather glad we got chucked
out of the other one now! (every cloud and all.....!).
have ordered a tagine for later on, and are just going to chill for the rest of the day. its lovely and warm at
the mo but will probably get nippy when the sun slips behind the mountain....
there is another english couple here, in a gorgeous airstream caravan, have been longing to see one of those
on the road.....might befriend them so can have a look inside : )
the scoot's off already, so we are all set to explore the todra gorges tom....

thursday: pottered yesterday aft., another van arrived, but its not full here.
had our delicious tagine and bread plus a surprise pud., of fresh oranges with cinnamon sprinkled on,
brought to the van at exactly 7pm (MT), as ordered!, we are really liking it here : )
bit more pottering after dinner, hardly any washing up (result!), then a nice, quiet night.
woke up to another gorgeous day!, and its pretty warm too....off to the gorges today, may take a picnic....
looking forward to it, should be good!
a bit later on thursday: had a relaxed am, p worked for a bit, c usual (pottering!), got chatting to david
and annie, proud owners of 'vera' the beautiful 1960's airstream (had a peek inside too, made us v.
jealous!), just before we set off on our scooter ride through the todra gorge; they are living in her while
they look for some land to buy here in morocco, to build a house and then use the airstream as a b+b!
(what a great plan!).
anyway, set off and quickly entered the gorge, high walls of amazing red rock formations (wished we knew
more about geology!). we had our picnic lunch after about an hour, just sat on a rock in the silence and sun-
shine, before getting back on and scootering right through the whole gorge. dry river in the bottom, but must
be fab. when there is water running through....
came out the other side to a huge valley, and lots of small nomad villages where there were people working in
the fields, washing their clothes in the streams, collecting firewood and carrying it home by donkey....its a
totally different world....
we headed on to see how high up we could get as david had said there were pretty good views about 20km
further on from the gorge....we did get quite far, and quite high, but turned back when we thought we had
half a tank of fuel left!
it was a really amazing trip, about 120km total, a little chilly, but really enjoyable : )
back at the van now, warming up and getting packed up as we are leaving here tom, headed for the desert at
merzouga, and another rendezvous with tim and pen (fingers crossed!).