Up into the moutains & the Toudra Gorge

A final farewell dinner in Marrekech, with the ladies from GB saw us street dining in the market again. It doesn't matter where in the world you are "Chips" are great..... aren't they Sarah !!!



We rose late on the Sunday & meandered over to the Hotel Sofitel through the local traffic to pick up our hire car. Finally there, we started to realise all was not well. The blank expression of the concierge was the first give away... what hire car? from which company? Ah! thirty minutes & an expensive internet surf later we began to realised the error of our ways. I printed out the e-mail Ems had had sent to me from ebookers 2 months before. Hire car 12th Jan to Feb 1st... well Ok today is the 14th & now we understand the blank expression !!! On calling the number printed we get hold of a man just closing up & heading for home (Far from our belief that a Friday is the Arab weekend everything in Marrakech closes on a sunday). The guy on teh phone offers to drive over & picks us up (thinking we're somebody completely different that he has actually been waiting for from the hotel) & very graciously points out we're "only" 2 days late & yes it is "absolutely not a problem" to collect the car today..."Sir."

Finally we hit the road, dodge the locals & set course up into the High Atlas mountains. We passed through the winding mountain range & headed down the other side into Ouarzazate (famed for the film production of the Passion of Christ & Gladiator).

We ate dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant, recommended by the guide book to Emma as being a regular haunt of the Italian film crew. As you can see below .... don't believe all you read, our packed restaurant contained just us! We thus deduced that no films were being made & decided to move on after a highly forgettable night's stop in an extremely "basic" hotel.



& so we headed out across the barren landscape stopping for brekie/brunch, roadside before pushing on to our 2 night destination of the Toudra gorge. We followed the below over-laden mini van up the gorge to our accommodation - Auberge Le Festival


We arrived with just enough time for a quick walk up a dried out river bed to work up an appetite. As the sun sank behind the hills surrounding the Auberge the temperature sank to near freezing. Boy was it cold or what? By gas burner & candle light we were entertained to live Berber music & ate like royalty.



Our hosts Abdul 1 (red) & Abdul 2 (guitar)were superb - no.1 our fantastic Moussaka making chef & no.é our evening program magic man & one man entertainment.

Day 2 in the gorge we hiked, scrambled & rock climbed up the near by mountain side. Once at the top of our 3hr upward marathon we were treated to the attached scenes (but only just!).