Todra Gorge Hike

Part way up the Todra Gorge and looking back down on the road we started on.

A Berber and his donkeys going down to get water from the river.

A Berber woman tying supplies to the family mule for the trip down the gorge.

The mother weaving and her daughter watching and helping.

The man prepared tea for his guests...

and served it to us.

The view of their camp and caves as we climbed further up the gorge.

The Berber town Tinjhir we hiked down to from the summit.

Kids are kids.

The Women Who Weave Cooperative.

Wednesday, September 20^th.

Today six of us were off for a four hour, 10 kilometre hike on a circular route through the Todra Gorge. Our driver Samir drove us to the entrance to the gorge and Andrew, Johnathan, Tara, Alisa, Wim and I set out. The first hour and a half was mostly uphill on an uneven rocky path between to enormous walls of red rock. The views were spectacular, but you had to stop to see them in order not to lose your footing. For most of the uphill we were in the shade which kept us cooler than it might have been.

We were in the sun when we got near the top and came to a Berber home. This is a family that Intrepid sponsors and they invited us in for a tea under a tent line awning. The home is set high up the gorge and as we watched the eldest daughter was loading up a donkey with empty water bottles to go down to the river at the bottom to get water for the family. They live in a series of one room caves. There was the husband, wife, and at least five children. The mother was working under a tent weaving and her youngest daughter was watching and helping. The man made us tea in one of the caves and then brought it over to us. We sat and sipped our small glass of sweet tea while our local guide interpreted our questions to the father and his answers to us. Yes, his children do go to school and he has several animals, including a donkey, goats and sheep. It was interesting to watch the family going about its business.

When we left we walked uphill in the hot sun for a little bit before we crested the gorge and came to a view of the Berber town Tinghir we were going to descend to. I was hoping for an old mud walled village similar to the one by the museum from yesterday, but this village, although it does have some old buildings, most of them are empty as the people are moving into the new brick houses. As a result the town looks quite new. We went to a families home where we met up with three of the others from our group, (one woman is feeling a bit poorly and decided to stay back at the hotel). Lunch was less than spectacular consisting of Berber pizza, which is bread bottom, a little bit of meat and veggies paste and bread on top too.

After we ate, we went downstairs to The Women Who Weave Cooperative that Intrepid and the Moroccan government sponsor. There are 37 women who weave carpets of various sizes and patterns. There were two there today with a man who explained about the cooperative and the process of weaving to us and then he brought out a number of finished rugs for us to examine. There seemed to be an expectation that we would buy something, but at first no one seemed interested. I definitely was not, as I am trying to downsize and don't need a rug. However, eventually Jonathan and Joanne bought three, Alisa and Wim bought one each. While they were shopping and having the rugs wrapped I asked Rachid if Samir could drive the rest of us back, which he did.

The rest of the afternoon was ours to do what we wished. I sorted pictures, wrote up the day, listened to some music and finished a chapter of my book Prisoners of Geography.

We met by the pool again for dinner and I had a vegetarian tagine which was quite good. I was very tired and headed off to be by 9:00.