SAY HELLO TO MOLLYWOOD

WEATHER: SUPER Hot and 40C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The local markets at Tinghir

BUMMER OF THE DAY: 40C is pretty hot – heard the news that Marrakech is going to be 44C

BUYS OF THE DAY: Well quite a productive buying day – goat slippers for 5AUD, a silver bangle from the Tinghir markets 10AUD and silver earrings from Ait Benhaddou for 10AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: Saha – thank you in Berber

We left our friend Speedy and out wonderful 2 day s at Todra Gorge this morning with our final destination being Ait Benhaddou this afternoon.  Our first stop was at the local town around 10 minute drive from where we were staying to visit the Association IGHIR Tinghir.  Also known as Project Handicapped Horizon, it is supported by the Intrepid Foundation, which donates dollar for dollar any money from their web site especially designed to help local communities in the countries where they operate tours.  The Melbourne Intrepid office, donates it’s time for free in the running of the Intrepid Foundation and 100% of the money goes to the cause, there are no admin fees etc.   Project Handicapped Horizon helps the disabled people in the community to earn a living, re-set their social skills and give them a better quality of life. From metal work, cooking and jewelry making, they then sell their completed projects in their store.  Their overall goal is for the social integration of people with disabilities, for them to learn skills at the Association that will help them find work and success in life.  If you want to donate you can do so on www.theintrepidfoundation.org 

From the Association we then traveled another 5 minutes down the road for Tinghir’s weekly market.  This is a pretty big deal across Morocco, as the smaller villages rely on the weekly markets from the buying and selling of food stuffs, to shoes, to chickens, to anything you can think of the weekly markets has it.  It is not set up for tourists, so we got to see the real deal and the place was amazing.  The weekly markets operate on different days for different towns and I guess it is a little like a travelling supermarket, as some of the stalls travel around to each village for ‘their’ weekly market.  The sights and sounds were awesome, and what I love about the Moroccans is they are so nice and easy going.  As there are not many ‘westerners’ found at the markets, we do look out of place, and not once were we hassled, they are my most favorite people by far.  We walked through the fruit and veggie section, the meat section (and yes there were some things that were a little stomach churning) through the grain section, the date section, the chicken section and we did a stop at the shoe section.  Now this story starts with Speedy when we arrived at Todra Gorge 2 days ago, and he met us with these funky looking flip flops.  They basically looked like there were hamsters on his feet.  They were thongs with goat hair on them and the hair was long enough to be touching the ground.  They looked so wrong that they were cool!  So we were able to purchase a pair of these from the markets while we were here for the grand price of 5AUD!!!!  Not sure how they will go getting back in via customs, but I will be posting mine, so we will have to see, but they are just hilarious.  I also bought a silver bangle for 10AUD and a bag of fresh popped popcorn for 10c!!!

We have some drive time today, so back on the road with just a roadside stop at the Oleander Valley, named appropriately as the valley is full of pink Oleander trees.  It looked beautiful!  A quick click stop, as we liked to put it and back on the road again.  Passing Rose Valley, also named for obvious reasons we stopped at a roadside café that not only offered free Wi-Fi and Nos Nos (coffee) but they also had a rose shop next store with ‘rose’ products as their local industry.  I couldn’t help myself and I got some rose hand cream – which just smells divine for the grand total of 2.50AUD for 300ml!!!

Our second last stop was at a town called Ouarzazate (pronounced Wherezazette) for lunch.  It also has a claim to fame as the ‘Mollywood’ ( M for Morocco) and the film capital of Morocco.  It has established itself as a cheaper option for the big Hollywood films to be shot here rather than in the US for example and they get a lot of bonuses if they film in Ouarzazate.   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) and Martin Scorsese's Kundun (1997) Legionnaire (1998) were shot in the Ouarzazate area.  The weather here was SUPER hot and we were all really struggling today, the last ‘horse sign’ we saw said 40C and it felt every bit the degree of it.

As we were in the movie capital of Morocco, we had the option to stop at the Atlas Corporation Film Studios, which also happen to be the oldest in Morocco and at present, it hosts the largest movie studios in the world. Several historical movies were shot at these studios, including Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, The Man Who Would Be King, Kingdom of Heaven and Babel. It was also the location of the November 26, 2006 episode of the television series The Amazing Race 10.  Here we paid 5AUD for an hour’s tour of the outdoor sets of some of the major movies that have been made here.  It was pretty cool to see some of the sets up close, as they are really just made of Styrofoam, as we knocked on each set to make sure, but to look at it; it looked just like the real deal.  As most of the sets were outdoors on such a hot day, we all sucked it up as it was pretty interesting, even in the heat and it was certainly worth paying the money to go through with a guide.

Our final destination and what an amazing place was the grand Kasbah of Ait Benhaddou. It is known to be one of the most beautiful Kasbah’s in all of Morocco and is also a UNNESCO World Heritage site.  It is basically a fortified village that has been so well preserved that it has also featured in some Hollywood movies over the years including Lawrence of Arabia, The Jewel of the Nile, The Last Temptation of Christ, Kundun, The Mummy, Gladiator and also Alexander.  It was about a 40 minute drive from Ouarzazate to the Kasbah and our accommodation was at a family run guest house for the night.  Mr. Action (as he is affectionately known) has starred in a lot of the above movies, 11 in total (and some he missed out on) – but I can see why he did make the extra’s on the movies, as he has a very vibrant personality.  This family hotel has also seen the generosity of Intrepid.  When the company first started using the property they only had 4 rooms, Intrepid has given them an interest free loan, to add on an additional 9 rooms and to boost their family business.  The accommodation was great, with an amazing view overlooking the village.  The only gripe we had was after such a hot day, the rooms were not air conditioned.  They did have big windows and a pedal stool fan, but there wasn’t a lick of wind, so we all got a restless night’s sleep with the heat, but I guess the weather is out of Mr. Action’s hands.

After we had time to settle in, have a rest and wait for the afternoon to cool a little.  Issam took us on a walking tour to the fortified village and we climbed 216 steps (I counted them all) to the top for an amazing panoramic view of the valley that the village layed in. Centuries ago the village was an important stop for the caravans as they carried goods to and from the Sahara.  Today, there are only a handful of families that still live here as there is no electricity.  It really is amazing at how well preserved the village is.  They have done some restoration over the years, but not too much as they want to preserve the original village as best they can at the same time.  It made for some great photos and we came down the other side of the village (214 steps) to get us back to our guest house.

Just before dinner Action gave us a simple Cous cous and tangine cooking lesson.  Needless to say dinner was a home cooked affair of a goat tangine cous cous served with vegetables with melon for dessert.  I do have to mention the flies here were just a nuisance.  We had to put cups over the top of our beers, so the flies wouldn’t get inside them; they were really quite bad here though while we were eating dinner.

A beer on the upstairs terrace to finish off an exhausting day hit the spot and hen off to bed for our big day tomorrow driving to Toubkall National Park and then walking to our mountain gite for our stay in the Atlas Mountains.