Gorge(ou)s

24-Oct-23

Today was all about 'the scenic drive'. Between scenic stops to Dades Gorge & Toudgh Gorge, we stopped along Vista points overlooking oases in the desert.

Winding road down to Dades River Gorge (I definitely got car sick on the way over here 😬)

"Monkey’s Fingers" rock formation in the Dades River Valley in Tamlalt

Tinghir in the Todgha River Valley

Toudgh River Gorge

Fish 'bowl' at edge of gorge

Another quick tourist stop took us to a clothing store where they dressed us up in traditional clothing & too photos - I assume with the hope that we would buy something. Instead, we took it as an opportunity for silly family photos...that weirdly make Kate & I look like sister-wives 😄

Our last stop by car was to a khettaras hydraulic system - an underground aqueduct driven by gravity that uses underground tunnels that connect to open wells above ground.

How it works

The resulting wells leave linear mounds of dirt above ground, as the water makes it way up to the irrigation fields.

Network of connecting tunnels span for miles!

Looking up from the bottom of a well

The well from above

Wells as far as the eye can see

The final journey for the day came by camel. We arrived in Merzouga, very close to the border with Algeria (in SE Morocco) in the Western edge of the Sahara Desert (!) where we mounted a caravan of camels into the sand dunes for a night of desert glamping.

One might ask how many pictures of the desert are too many...

Heading into the Sahara Desert!