Our overnight hotel, Riad Madu was slightly south of Merzouga near the town of Hassilbied so after breakfast we retraced our path to Erfoud where we had a brief stop to photograph the sheep souk and then we turned left and proceeded westwards along highway P32.
Sheep souk, Erfoud
The landscape was very flat, barren and quite dusty with the wind blowing Saharan sand onto the road and covering it in places, resulting in the need for very cautious driving.
Camels on roadside near Erfoud
These barren dunescapes with their parched and lunar appearance are interspersed with lush verdant valleys such as the Ziz we visited two days ago together with the Todra and Dades valleys we’ll visit later today. These havens where life thrives in abundance, only exist where there is a plentiful availability of water. The lifeblood of water results in pockets of civilisation with extensive lush date-palm oases occurring unexpectedly within this otherwise arid and uninviting terrain.
The ancient trade routes that linked the imperial cities of Fès and Marrakech to Timbuktu, Niger and beyond, followed this water reliant pathway and resulted in several caravanserais being established throughout this Southern Atlas region.
Apart from the water supplied from rivers flowing down from the mountains, it was also accessed from the underground/artesian water table. Water rises naturally at the foot of dunes or as was done in earlier times, pumped from artesian wells and then allowed to flow by gravity along underground channels known as khettaras or draining galleries.
Our first tourist stop for the day was at a vantage point in the desert where one of these khettaras was observable.
Khettara
We clambered down rough hewn stone steps, through a narrow tunnel to a point about ten metres underground and saw the three metre diameter circular channel that was dug many centuries ago for the water to flow through. Every fifty or so metres along the water course was a small vertical shaft down to the water channel below, allowing buckets to be lowered to bring water up to irrigate the ground above.
Stone steps inside Khettara
Our delightful local guide inside Khettara
Bucket inside khettara
Steps looking up to outside khettara
This ingenious and ancient network of channels covers large distances and it’s hard to reconcile the time and effort that was put into establishing this underground waterway, built only using primitive tools and human labour.
As might have been expected, this khettara network is no longer in use having been replaced by plastic pipes, electric pumps, aqueducts and concrete water storage towers.
After a lunchtime cold drink we drove to Tinehir and then turned right off the main road and took time to observe the incredibly productive oasis associated with the Todra River valley’s water availability. Apart from the vast number of date-palms there are large areas of walnut and almond groves together with extensive horticultural operations involving vegetable production.
Titanic Café
Orange juices at Titanic Café
We continued up this road for about fifteen kilometres to the Todra Gorge.
Tinehir township in Todra Valley
This spectacular and narrow gorge has been formed by the erosion of river flow over the millennia leaving an incredibly deep cutting through sandstone and limestone rock. The walls of the gorge would be about 200 m high and the river base probably less than 100 m wide. We were informed that this is a particularly popular rock climbing location but it looks to be certainly for experts only. Inevitably, the gorge area has become an accumulation point for numerous locals wishing to sell t-shirts, scarves, trinkets and the many other tourist items.
Todra Gorge
Todra Gorge
Todra Gorge
Todra Gorge
Roadside stalls
Restaurant damaged by rock fall, Todra Gorge
As we’d seen in other locations recently, there are a surprising number of ancient kasbahs (walled castles or fortresses) that have been vacated and have now partially collapsed. Some apparently were former Jewish establishments and were vacated when their occupants moved to Israel in 1948 or thereafter.
Ancient kasbah, Todra Valley
For the remainder of the afternoon we continued westwards and then stopped for ‘stretching the legs’ and some photo opportunities at Boumaine du Dades. The Dades River Valley is another classic example of a glorious green and healthy productive oasis surrounded by a dusty brown and incredibly arid desert plateau.
Dades
The juxtaposition of these two adjacent, utterly different environments is hard to reconcile.
At El Kelaa des Mgouna we passed through extensive rose plantations. The rose petals are harvested for extracting the essential oil and also for making jam.
There were lots of children standing by the side of the road waving at us and desperately keen to sell us heart shaped bouquets of rose petals.
Roses, El Kelaa des Mgouna
We then encountered a major traffic jam. A huge army low-loader carrying an army tank had come to grief somehow and was blocking the road. Our van was sufficiently small to utilise a rocky two kilometre detour, whereas larger vehicles apparently were delayed for hours.
We ended our day’s travels at a small village called Skoura and went to our next two night’s accommodation at Kasbah Ait Ben Damiette. The proprietors are a French couple, Sophie and Erwin Ben Damiette and we were greeted warmly and have a very comfortable room at the top of ‘the stairway to heaven’. The final climb to our high bedroom involves steps more like a ladder than a staircase. Thankfully, Salah our waiter and porter took on the task of delivering our bags to our top-floor room.
Stairway to our room, Ben Damiette Riad
View from our room, Ben Damiette Riad, Skoura
We had a most enjoyable meal next to the swimming pool and enjoyed a beer and a G&T; the first alcohol for quite some time.
Poolside dinner, Ben Damiette Riad, Skoura
Tomorrow morning we will have a guided walk in Skoura’s old kasbah section and then visit ‘The Atlas Movie’ site at Ouarzazate.
We’ll then spend a second night at Kasbah Ait Ben Damiette which is pleasing news!