Kathleen
5/23/2013 – Ait Benhaddou
On leaving Tinghir, we went to visit the second well-known gorge in the area, the Dades Gorge. It was a harrowing ride in, but a beautiful site to visit. We then drove a few hours further to Ait Benhaddou. This is a traditional ksar containing four kasbahs and being entirely built on a small hill in the middle of a (usually) dry streambed. This place is famous because it has been used as the backdrop in many movies from Lawrence of Ariabia to the most recently filmed season of Game of Thrones. It really is a striking place to look at and we actually found it quite striking to stay there as well. I had a bit of a rough tummy that day and was looking forward to gettig somewhere I could relax.
When we arrived at our riad, Kasbah Tebi, (It is the only place to stay in the Ksar as it is in one of the Kasbahs itself) we discovered that it had no electricity or hot water.
The location and ambiance was amazing, but somehow we weren’t quite prepared for roughing it this night. The booking.com site said that the place had internet access throughout, which was clearly impossible given the fact that they had no electricity. The Kasbah family members who greeted us were extremely friendly and they served us tea on the veranda and told us about the different movies that had come through. They also gave us a tour of the older part of the kasbah including the kitchens the way they were hundreds of years ago. We walked back across the riverbed for a pizza dinner in a tiny little place on the road – it was thin stuff but all my tummy was willing to risk that night….
We slept well, woke up early, skipped breakfast and got on the road to Essaouira, where we hoped to discover a hot shower……
