TRAVEL|MOROCCO

Crossing the High Atlas Mountains

…from Marrakech to Ouarzazate

Le Jardin Majorelle

Today was one of the most memorable days of my travels so far. Memorable and traumatic. In the morning, we visited Le Jardin Majorelle. I wasn’t going to leave Marrakech without a visit. I loved it! We didn’t plan on spending the entire day here but it was so beautiful it was hard not to.

Seeing my favourite blues against the greens of the garden was calming and I needed to be calm for the next stage of our trip. The cacti gardens blew me away. I’ve never seen so many varieties of cacti — simply beautiful. I took more photos here in one day than I did the rest of the trip.

The Gardens also house the Berber Museum which Stacey and I both found informative and fascinating. Interestingly, when I was googling to find out when YSL bought Le Jardin Majorelle, the first article to pop up was a blog by Taylor Hearts Travel which said:

“Jardin Majorelle is a colourful, pretty garden in Marrakech. But in all honesty it’s not much more than that and didn’t blow me away.

If you’re tight on time in Marrakech there are plenty of other things to do. That said, if you have a spare hour or two it’s a pleasant enough stroll and only costs a few quid to enter.”

It just goes to show how different people can visit somewhere and have completely different perceptions of it. Apart from the fact that it’s in Marrakech, I’d be happy to live there, but I wouldn’t want to look after the gardens!

Crossing the High Atlas

Crossing the High Atlas mountains was terrifying. I won’t go into details, but I was a member of the white-knuckle brigade and progressed from having kittens to puppies! And it wasn’t because of Stacey’s driving. She avoided dozens of lunatics who insisted on crossing the centre line and coming onto our side of the road. I didn’t get photos of them — I was too busy hanging on!

But miraculously, we arrived just on dusk, unscathed and in one piece. Kasbah Dar Daif was to be our home for the next 2 days. We were greeted on the footpath and our bags taken in.

Kasbah Dar Daif

As we were ushered inside, we discovered a large courtyard around which the kasbah (pronounced kaspar) was built. The courtyard was sprinkled with gardens and palms and a large swimming pool. Off to one side was the Hammam. Up the stairs to our new room. We had booked a small room, but we had been upgraded to a junior suite, which was one floor lower than our designated room. I think my trusty walking stick helped. I had my own room with a single bed, a desk and chair, two windows and two alcoves. The bed had a duck down doona. Stacey’s room was similar except it had no windows and a queen-size bed. Our accommodation keeps on improving every night. All this luxury including the amazing breakfast on the terrace cost us each $30 a night. We’d pay $30 for a breakfast of eggs benedict and coffee in Australia — no wonder we travel!

We made a booking for dinner at 8, and what a feast! The dining room was on the top floor, but the climb was worth it. Entrée was vegetable soup: potato, zucchini, carrot and pumpkin — and oh, so delicious. Meat and chicken on skewers followed, and a plate of vegetables so large, that there was no room left on the table. There were potatoes, yams, turnips, cabbage, peas, beans, zucchini, mung beans, carrots as well an unknown but very tasty vegetable with fresh Argan oil drizzled over the lot. The best vegetable platter I have ever had, and we ate every last morsel. And then dessert — a type of baked custard date pie. The vegetables were the highlight for sure!

Down to our beds and a night of dreamless sleep. When I woke up, I opened my windows to find people walking past. How could this be? We were on the third floor! I was determined to investigate later.

Breakfast was served on the sunlit terrace right at the top of the Kasbah with views forever. The waiter had to bring our food and drink from the kitchen on the third floor on the other side of the courtyard down the stairs and then upstairs to the terrace. No wonder they are so fit and slim. We gave breakfast five stars. Omelettes and soup, with Moroccan pancakes, coffee, juice, a bowl of fresh pomegranate and the pièce de resistance: goat yoghurt — such a silky, subtle taste. The thought of it is making me salivate.

Atlas Film Studios

I wanted to explore the kasbah and its surrounds but Stacey had different ideas. So off we drove to visit the Atlas Film Studios. Apart from having one of the sets from Game of Thrones (I think it’s Qarth) made from polystyrene foam (yes, I know it’s totally incroyable) there were sets from many historical films set in Rome, Egypt and Greece. These studios are chosen for many films because they can readily access 3000 Moroccans to look like Romans, Greeks, Egyptians or even soldiers, but not Chinese. They had to “import” 300 Chinese for the film “Kundun”. Imagine Chinese using chopsticks to eat couscous!

The sets can be easily changed from Greek to Roman to Egyptian by changing the wall decorations and outside windows. Another reason films are shot here is that it rarely rains, maybe 4 days a year, so shooting isn’t held up by rainy days. Our guide told us about the clear blue skies with only one plane a day landing at the local airport so there’s no problem with contrails or pesky planes being caught in the action. There was a huge list of films that have been partially shot here: Cleopatra, Ben Hur, Jewel on The Nile, and Gladiator are a few I remembered.

Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah

Then off to the Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah, the Yunkai setting for Game of Thrones, and popular with GOT aficionados. The rocky walk down was too challenging for me after walking all around the Atlas studios so I sat on a sunny terrace while Stacey explored. I spotted what looked like a cool summery dress, but on closer inspection was actually a pantsuit. 300 dirhams, la choukran, no thanks, 200 dirhams, la choukran, and finally as I was walking away, 150 dirhams. I explained I didn’t have cash- only credit card- to which he replied he would accept credit card if I spent 2000 dirhams. ($320) Yeah, right…

These Kasbahs date back to the 16th-17th centuries when the local Berber tribes would establish a Kasbah (like a fortified enclave or little village) on the slave trade route between Mali and Essaouira. There was another Kasbah — Kasbah de Taourirt that Stacey wanted to see so she dropped me in town at one end of the street to purchase lunch for tomorrow and a road map of Morocco. I completed both missions without too much difficulty. I really had to use my French as no one spoke English. Of course, I reached the designated meeting point but no Stacey. I called her and she had driven right past me.

Hammam and Massage to end the day

I was starting to panic as I had a 5 pm appointment for the hammam and I didn’t want to miss a single minute of it. Oh, it was the highlight of my day. I stripped off and lay down on the hot tiles in a steamy room to be scrubbed to within an inch of my life. You would not believe the dead skin that girl scrubbed off me, and I’d only had a gommage 5 days ago in Casablanca.

The recommended interval is one week. My skin felt like a newborn baby’s. While still sitting on the floor, my hair was thoroughly washed and wrapped in a towel. By the way, the towels in our room are the largest, thickest towels I’ve had so far this trip. I am used to bath sheets at home but Europeans seem to use towels the size of postage stamps.

To top off the hammam experience, I wrapped myself in a robe and walked across the courtyard to the massage room. The aromatherapy masseuse completed the task of perfecting my skin with an all-over oil massage. It was so heavenly I fell asleep to be awoken after an hour or so. Almost two and a half hours of pampering was just what I needed.

I eventually found my way back to my room for a nap before dinner. It’s very easy to get lost in this Kasbah. To keep out the cold and to keep the warmth in, they hang large blue velvet curtains over the doorways so it’s not obvious where you have to go. I’d love to stay a few more days but sadly we are heading off in the morning.

Dinner!

But first, dinner. Harira soup, the Moroccan speciality. Then, chicken tajine with vegetables! So this is what chicken tajine is supposed to be; tender, juicy chicken with all of the flavours intermingling in your mouth — just divine. Luckily, that awful chicken tajine I had in Casablanca wasn’t enough to turn me off chicken tajine for life. And an orange tart for dessert. The only thing missing was a nice bottle of wine!

If you come to Morocco, I highly recommend you stay in a kasbah.

Are there any Globetrotters who have visited Ouarzazate? What were your experiences?