Intentional Traveler: Monday, November 9 ~ Erfoud

Up and out early again today. First we road up the Dades to see the beautiful gorge with farms nestled between the cliffs. Children seemed to be everywhere. Kahlid reminded us that because classrooms are overcrowded the children go to school in shifts. He also reminded us that in these rural areas parents fear school as it might take the children away from the family farm and lure them to the city. Something like 6o per cent of the population is young and therefore gets the most benefits. The elderly are looked after in the homes of the children. Parents think if the kids are educated they will go to university and settle in big cities and the parents do not want to have to move there. As a side note, illiteracy in those over the age of 50 is at a very high rate. Voting takes place in the Medinas and villages in squares painted on the walls with pictures representing the candidates. The voter then makes a mark in the square for whom they wish to vote. Since elections were in September they remain like graffiti on the walls even in poor areas of the cities.

You can see below a Dades Valley picture. Water is in the wadi on the right center. If you look carefully you will see a Kasbah to the left. The wall of the mountain behind has been eroded by wind and water to be a formation called “the monkey’s fingers.”

At our rest stop, which we came to after we all tried to access the bus WIFi (pronounced wee fee) and found that 23 people can’t access the same thing at the same time ever! The writing on the sand reads “Sahara is Morocco.” A good part of Morocco is in the Sahara Desert and there is discussion for them to claim it.

Even the sheep match the color of the desert!

Is this donkey waiting for a ride?

The vastness is astounding and it makes you wonder where this person is walking to or from.

Nomads guide their flocks but most just sat by as the sheep don’t tend to wander into the road. There is no grass there to graze upon.

We dutifully got out for frequent photo stops, here of the date palms in the Dades valley. At every stop a local person would dutifully try to sell us something. And dutifully someone in our group would buy it!

Every family has a farm or at least a plot of land and a share of the date palms. Much ‘shopping’ is done by the barter system. The farmers respect each other and remember that if you gave me tomatoes in season then I must give you dates.

Not the best part of a land trip but then again, we are seeing so very much. Kahlid is a great guide and can speak about the history and customs of Morocco in great detail. He points out so many things along the roadside, plays music and today he showed us the movie called the Wind and the Lion which amazingly starred Sean Connery and Candace Bergan. It was really pretty good. I may have been the only person on the bus who did not doze off however. We are getting tired.

Our destination is the Todra Gorge. Sheer cliffs rise some 985 feet from the desert floor creating a narrow corridor for the Wadi Todra. The phenomenon is only narrow for a short distance but two hotels take advantage of this. They provide overnight accommodations for climbers who relish the challenge. Here vendors tried to bargain to change U.S. dollars that they had accepted for dirham. It is many miles to the nearest bank and banks don’t like to deal in singles. But the sellers would rather have something than nothing. A constructed channel carries water to the farmers beyond.

All along all the roads we have been on there are frequent police stops for checking papers. The closer we get to Algeria the more stops there are. Usually the bus is waved through but at least once the driver and assistant had to show their licenses and papers.

Nomads live in large tents but frequently build small structures at locations they sometimes return to as the season’s cycle. This tent is near vestiges of an old well system created by the French. They dug a series of wells, perhaps 100 in one area, and then ran pipes from each to farms and villages. The system no longer is working as there is no longer water in these wells.

At last we came to our hotel in Erfoud at the edge of the Sahara Desert. We had been traveling through it much of the day but now we expected a true desert experience. The hotel is the same brand as we had last night so we are looking forward to another stay in a place Kahlid calls cute.