Desert bound

What’s up everyone?

I’m slowly going through all the photos from my recent trip to Morocco while crying inside that I’m not there anymore.. Anyway, here goes part 1 of the desert trip photo diary, basically covering the first day of the trip and a bit of the second day. We took this desert trip through our riad from Marrakech and, besides being too expensive compared to other options we were offered AFTER we payed the deposit, we felt safer to pay their price and go with a legit guide & company, rather than randomly pay half the price to someone on the street and maybe have an awful experience or lose the money and get no experience at all. Yes, the experience was touristy, but nevertheless it was great (and after all, that’s what we were there: tourists), we got to see amazing places and sceneries, met new people and had an amazing and fun time overall.

So, we headed from Marrakech to the sand dunes of Merzouga, through the Atlas Mountains. During the first day we made a pit stop at kasbah (fortress) Ait Benhaddou, which apparently was home to the city of Yunkai, from the Game of Thrones series (do you recognize it from the picture below?). We passed by wonderful sceneries (Todra Gorge was my favourite! The way the light shined over this rocks and the families of locals hiding from the sun with their kids playing in the river like there wasn’t any problem in the world whatsoever..), green oasis surrounded by yellow-red mud and rock hills, small towns full of life and trading activities, argan oil workshops, small villages isolated in the middle of nowhere and perched on rocky slopes with a small river at the bottom, people trying to sell handmade objects and colourful stones by desolated roads. It’s fascinating how there are people that keep living in such difficult and dry conditions and it really puts into perspective your whole life and the way the world – and people – are wired.

We also passed through Ouarzazate, “the door to the desert”, which became an important destination in Morocco, having large filming studios which were used as location for plenty of well-known movies. I even got a glimpse of a new setup for an upcoming movie, but wasn’t fast enough to photograph it from the car. 🙁