Leaving Marrakech in southeast direction on to the serpentine of the Atlas. Many road reconstructions slow the traffic down to 20 km per hour. The green vegetation changes as soon as we approach Ait-Ben-Haddou.
Was it a scam? We were literally stopped at the speed of 50 km per hour. A young man jumped onto the street in front of our car asking for a lift to Ouarzazate 60km ahead. His car stood on side of the road at the bottom of a hill with an open bonnet because of broken engine allegedly. On arriving from afar we could see another chap runing down the hill, in order to inform him?
We refused to take him along but offered to deliver a message to his relatives in Ouarzazate which he accepted. Is it really necesarry as everyone has a mobile phone here? We did deliver his short message to his “cousin” Hassan 3 hours later who sat with other men on the pavement playing games opposite to the petrol station. He offered us “Moroccan hospitality” which we rejected politely because we had really have to move further.
Ksar Ait-Ben-Haddou
Along the former trading caravan route into Sahara Ait-Ben-Haddou, a village constructed by earthen clay, is an UNESCO World Heritage site today and has been location for many film productions e.g. Game of Thrones (2012), Gladiator (2000) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962). There are film studios in Ouarzazate nearby.
Entrance to Ait-Ben-Haddou
Really wearisome to drive in the darkness along the narrow country roads of the highly populated Draa valley without street light. You can find all sorts of unmotorised road users in the medina including children and donkeys on both sides of the roads without pavement repeatedly and none of them has any mean of warning light or cat´s eye. Most cars have but they tend to turn on all light they possess in order to see what is moving around so you get glared most of the time!
Riad Dar Nekhla in a palm grove. A courtyard guesthouse with garden
We are more than pleased to arrive in Zagora finally. The next aggressive solicitation is waiting for us already. Another car pushes us aside out of the blue to make us stop: Are you Mr X looking for Hotel Y? No, thanks. Our hotel is Dar Nekhla, well signposted and we have a GPS navigator. Don´t worry, just follow us. We know where it is. We have to follow them as we know only one way to get there.
Last caravanserai before Sahara: Timbuktu in 52 days
These two guys with a big Jeep stick to us until we get diner in our hotel. It turn out, they want to sell us a trip to the sand dunes in the desert. No, thanks. We think about it and will let you know if we go for it. It does not stop them to return to the hotel next morning to ask us again. But we stay firm, don´t want to do business with them, out of principle.
Zagora is a oasis dwelling before Sahara. Two tarmaced roads run through the town. The other roads are pot-holed and dusty. No touristic highlight. We leave a day earlier as planed heading back to Draa valley across to the West to Taroudant.
These road users are to be expected in the darkness, too
One of these kasbahs, clay fortification, follows each other along the Draa valley