Day 12 - Movies, Kasbahs, Mountains
The receptionist at the hotel silently swore at me for waking up at 7 am - by that time, I was in full gear, ready for another cooold morning.
Main square of Ouarzazate - just after 7 am
I first went the opposite direction - to visit a major kasbah, but at this early hour, it was closed, as expected.
Part of an old Kasbah
A newer kasbah
After having a good OJ at a café, I started leaving town, which was a long procedure, there was this long stretch of a straight, but uphill road, that never wanted to end. When it did, there was statue of a clapperboard as the symbol of this city. To quote Wikipedia, "this area is a noted film-making location, with Morocco's biggest studios inviting many international companies to work here. Films such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Living Daylights (1987), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Mummy (1999), Gladiator (2000), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Kundun (1997), Legionnaire (1998), Hanna (2011),The Hills Have Eyes (2006), and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) were shot here, as was part of the TV series Game of Thrones". There are a number of film studios, one of them, called Atlas, is one of the largest studios in the world - in terms of the studio's area.
A clapperboard - the city is known for the filmmaking industry. Note the long line of lights - there was a lamp post every 50 meters for some 8 or 9 kilometers...
I was not particularly a happy fellow at the beginning of my ride, after the wonderful roads in amazing scenery in the past 3-4 days, this was a rather narrow road with quite some traffic on it - I thanked each driver that did not push me off the road (they were all patient, as it was still early). A whole swarm of Spanish motorcyclists overtook me - and I sort of guessed where they were heading.
About 30 kilometers from Ouarzazate is a yet another UNESCO World Heritage site, called Ait Benhaddou. This is a ksar, or a fortified village, built of earthen clay, along the former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakesh. There are still a couple of families who live in this ancient village.
I was quite impressed by the place, however, I had a goal of reaching Marrakesh by the next day - but first I had a fairly good breakfast for a fairly touristy price overlooking the town (scenery tax). I was actually glad to leave, as there were busloads of tourists arriving to stroll the narrow streets. In this touristy area, even the water was overpriced - they asked for 10 dirhams, I said I'd pay 6, we agreed on 8 - plus I got a quarter of the sandwich the store owner was eating.
It turned out to be a good decision with the breakfast and the quarter sandwich - I had some extremely steep inclines and switchbacks waiting for me that day. It was quite late, after 11 am, that I started climbing, up this gorge, made up of barren towering mountains, the bottom of the gorge having a river and has a small patches of lush, green vegetation, of palm forests and farms - close to these is where villagers dwelt. There were quite a few villages, people living simple lives in midst of these mountains.
I saw some more kasbahs.
Kasbah next to the road
The region is known for salt mining - one could not overlook that.
Horse back is one form of transportation.
In the afternoon, at around 3 pm, I reached a sort of a plateau, with pine forests - and one could see the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas mountains.
It was not long after here that I met the first long-range biker, a German (of course, where else...😉) guy, he had been riding for 3 months, starting out in Portugal, then heading to Spain, then taking the Morocco's Atlantic coast. He liked the mountains, but not the coast, told me it was boring - so again, I thank my hosts in Tangier Med on Day 0 for leading me the other way. He also told me the road would keep climbing for at least 30 more kilometers on a partially unpaved road (construction was going on) and it would be better if I had stopped in the next town, Telouet, at 1800 meters above the sea level.
That is what I did, even though it was only 4 pm. There was not much sense in attempting to cross the pass - and be cold and miserable. So I got to the town, found quite a nice hotel, negotiated a reasonable price (150 dirhams or so), then rode to the market to get some food. I asked if they had kafta, the waiter said how much I wanted; a standard portion, I replied. On this, he led me to a butcher, who started mincing meat, told me it would cost 20 dirhams. I asked for some onions to be mixed in and soon, sitting outside in the setting sun, I got quite a delicious meal of meat and onions - not quite the kebab-like kafta I was hoping for. With pita bread and Moroccan tea, it was a tasty dinner (40 dirhams, if I recall correctly).
Scenes from Telouet, the black cat felt comfy to be under my bike
I returned to the hotel, they recommended the nearby Kasbah, parts of which, unfortunately, were just ruins - this was the ancient Kasbah. The new one looked considerably better, however, it was closed by the time I had gotten there.
Ruins of the old and the new Kasbah
I took a very hot bath, trying to warm up my freezing room - again, no heating was available.
Well, I had spent time visiting some amazing sites, so the result of that day was just 80 kilometers of biking, 1160 meters of uphill and 510 meters of downhill riding, you can view the map here. Marrakesh was only 130 kilometers away - quite reachable by the following day.