Ouarzazate

A visit to Morocco has to include a trip to the desert and a camel ride. So we booked a three day tour from Marrakech with a local travel agency. There was a big mix-up on the morning of our departure with the travel agency because there were many tourists and many minibuses and lots of commotion, moving people and their luggage from one minibus to another and general chaos. When everything was finally sorted we started our tour almost two hours late. A good thing we were on vacation, we weren’t in a hurry to get anywhere so we didn’t let it bother us.

Our trip towards the desert included sightseeing along the way. From Marrakech we first had to drive across a pass through the Atlas mountains, where we stopped to admire natural wonders such as a narrow river gorge and huge geologic rock formations. On the other side of the pass is Ouarzazate, the center of the Moroccan movie industry. Many high profile movies, such as Gladiator, Prince of Persia, Asterix and Obelix meet Cleopatra and many more were filmed there, either in local studios or in the Taourirt Kasbah, a restored village. The village has been used to portray locations such as various deserts, ancient Rome and even Tibet.


Our tour guide alias minibus driver was what someone called “isn’t he just the worst tour guide ever?”. So he didn’t speak English, but many of us members of the group knew enough high school French to make basic conversation. Add Marko, who speaks French fluently, therefore the language barrier shouldn’t have been a problem. But it turned out that he told us to take 45 minutes to explore the Taourirt Kasbah and then 45 minutes for lunch. And we did exactly that, explored the village and then had lunch in one of the many restaurants in the area. When we returned to the minibus on time, he was extremely upset, because apparently he wanted us to return to the minibus after the first 45 minutes of sightseeing so that he could take us all to lunch (to somewhere where he would have made a nice commission, no doubt). He was still pouting when he stopped in front of the Atlas Film Corporation Studios and informed us that due to our late morning start there was no time to visit the studios. I understood this as punishment for our disobedience at lunch because I really wanted to visit the studios, to see if they are anything like Universal Studios.


Our driver also made a shopping side trip disguised as a visit to a village where they make traditional Berber carpets. Marko and I didn’t buy anything, not only because we really don’t need a carpet but also because the Berber carpets are neither beautiful nor well made.


On the second day, our driver made sure we wouldn’t stray for lunch again and thus rob him of his commission. He drove us high into the mountains to the only restaurant in sight with admittedly a beautiful view of an oasis below. It turned out to be the most expensive restaurant on our entire Moroccan trip. We needed to eat as we weren’t sure when he would feed us next so we reluctantly ordered the fixed lunch menu. To be fair, it cost approximately as much as a fixed lunch menu would cost back home, but compared to prices elsewhere in Morocco, it was extreme.

Finally, after two days on the road, we approached the desert where the camels were waiting for us.