200km across South East Morocco

Sunday 5 January 2025

Saying goodbye to the Sahara

We left Merzouga and headed to Todra Gorge with lots fo stops along the way.

Breathing new life into old fossils

We stopped at the Macro Fossile Kasbah, in Erfoud, a small factory, to see how the ridiculous number of  fossils that are found in the region are transformed into tabes, artworks and small souveniers.

This area is home to densely packed evidence of the trilobites and ammonites that lived in the sea that covered the Sahara 250 to 300 million years ago.

Water Wheels

The next stop was near Jorf Khettaras to see how water is transported across the fields to the townships.  Long underground canals are dugg out by hand with access wells located every 16 meters to allow the tunnels to be dug and water lifted out.Wells to bring spring water to the surface.

Olivia is demonstrating how to do it!

Rock the Kazbah

Our educational break was to look through the Elkhorbat Kasbah.  A walled family home that accommodated upwards of 30 people, with additional guest quarters.  It is not occupied anymore, and it set up as a Berber Museum.

Arriving at Todra Gorge

In the late afternoon, we continued in the van until we reached our final destination for the day, Todra Gorge and our hotel, Kasbah Taborihte.

This hotel was a little different. We had to leave our packs and suitcases with the porters and went downstairs to the swinging bridge to cross a small river to gain access to the hotel.

The hotel only had one other group staying, so we had plenty of space. We were able to get washing done here and it cost 50MAD (about $8) for a shopping bag of clothes.

Dinner was more bread, more couscous, more vegetable tagine (with chicken) and fruit. We would need it because tomorrow we are hiking to the top of the gorge.