Morocco – Todgha Gorge

2015 March 21 —–

We the headed further into the Todgha Gorge. This whole region is stuck between two mountain ranges. Once buried under the sea, when the water disappeared it left the deformed rocks of folds and faults. Wind and river erosion eventually shaped the desert landscape of limestone and clay. The Todgha River widened the rocks, giving rise to canyons up to 160 meters high but in some places only 10 meters wide. The temperature always remains cool, even when the local village is warm, because the sun only shines into the gorge in the early morning.

The Kasbah les Roches hotel is nestled between a huge cliff and the river, which snakes through the gorge. It is both awesome and scary. If there were a flash flood or rock slide you have no where to run.

Someplace along the trip a guide showed us how to tie a turban for ourselves. It was a great thing to learn. It kept the sun off the head, it kept our head warm in the evenings, and it was perfect to hide a bad hair day.

Most guides speak a little bit of several different languages. In Tinerhir that our guide kept talking to ‘Kyle’ in Japanese. Kyle was from South Korea. He told the guide that although he understood Japanese he was South Korean. The guide kept talking to him in Japanese. Kyle was getting more than a little irritated. That night we were all having dinner together and the subject of which country has the worst travelers came up. Most people agreed that the Americans and Russians were the worst. Then one German fellow said that he didn’t like the South Koreans. Gasp! Everyone looked at Kyle, who had a look of “what the hell did I do to you” on his face. Then the fellow followed up with “because they look Japanese,,, but they’re not”. We all burst out laughing, including Kyle.

We left Todgha Gorge and headed toward the highlight of our trip – an overnight stay in the Sahara.