Rocking the Kasbah

When planning this trip, we needed to find a way of getting from Marrakech to Fes. Rather than catching a bus, we thought ‘heck…why not hire a guide to take us on a three day tour via the desert?’

So that’s what we did.

We were picked up in a 4WD by our lovely guide Hassan and wasted no time getting out of Marrakech and into the High Atlas Mountains. Unfortunately we got caught in some heavy rain and fog, so missed on seeing some stunning scenery. Hassan kept pointing out the window into a blanket of grey nothingness and saying ‘that’s normally a really beautiful view’. Ah well…you can’t win them all.

Thankfully, by the time we had made it through the mountains we had left most of the rain and mist behind and were lucky to get some really good light and see some great cloud formations.

The highlight of the day was definitely the Eit Bennhadou Kasbah - a fortified city. It was an amazing place…it was so surreal, and we felt as though we had stepped onto a movie set. Which was ironic, given that heaps of films have been shot there…Lawrence of Arabia, The Jewel of the Nile, Indiana Jones, The Legionnaire, Gladiator, The Mummy, Kingdom of Heaven and Prince of Persia.

The cool thing is that a handful of families still live in the Kasbah and are pseudo movie stars, having featured as extras in many of these films.

To continue with the theme, we spent the night in a town called Ouarzazate where there are two major movie studios that cater for the many films that get shot in the area. When we arrived at our Riad we took to opportunity to enjoy a gorgeous sunset on the rooftop and watch the locals going about their business.