Saturday, April 12, 2025

At night I wake up briefly. The balcony door is open and outside I hear rain. Rain in the desert! It seems to follow us. In Death Valley, in the Gobi desert. 

When I wake up in the morning it’s cloudy but dry. The brown clay that dominates the landscape is darker than before.

On a terrace on the second floor we enjoy breakfast while looking over the nearby planes and distant mountains.

You may have noticed that our hotel is called Hollywood Africa. That is, because there is a small mountain here (more a ‘tell’ I would say) with a Ksar (defended city) on it. This ksar is still so authentic that is has been used in countless movies. From The Man Who Would be King (Sean Connery) in the last century, to Gladiator and Game of Thrones, more recently. 

We walk over to the ksar and cross the pedestrian bridge over the wadi (a wadi is a river that may be dry most of the year, but can fill extremely quickly upon a desert rainstorm).

The mountain is brown and red and shows layers of copper green. On one side the bottom half is covered with brown adobe houses and fortifications. After we cross the bridge and climb the stairs between the houses I clearly see the packed clay and straw and grass mixed in.

This is the kind of clay that the Israelites had to mix with the straw in Egypt for the pharao. 

Some buildings are in excellent shape, characteristically decorated with arched door frames and windows. Others have collapsed and are only ruins. The adobe suffers much when it gets wet. So a not maintained house can deteriorate in a few years if there is rain.

We work our way to the top, where a single small building (a grainery) remains. The view over the new town on the other side of the river, but especially over the desert on the other side, is splendid.

We decide to go back to the adobe buildings to have a better look at them, and then to go for a walk in the desert.

Any illusion that I would be somewhat of an adventurer in this ksar is hopelessly shattered as I observe the massive line of tourists on the bridge heading into the ksar. 

Souvenir sellers occupy many of the clay buildings and it is with difficulty that we find our way back to the river.

There we take our own path along the river banks and around the city walls to the desert. We pass a large new city gate under construction, and we guess it is for the new movie Odyssee wich will be recorded this year.

Then we reach barren gravel and mount a hill almost as high as the ksar and get a better view of the architecture.

We descend and walk into the desert. We follow horse tracks for a while and admire the colors. The land is not flat but undulates. Between the hills are small valleys, mostly with sides that show extreme erosion and are too steep and soft to climb easily. 

After an hour or so we return to the village for food and to relax in the hotel. While I enjoy my siesta, a heavy rain starts. We wait until it is over before returning to the ksar. And when we arrive at the wadi. We find a fast flowing stream of muddy brown water. It eats away the river banks and rushes around the pilons of the bridge. 

People stare amazed at the power of the water and the completely altered lansdscape. The path over the banks we followed this morning is under water now.

We mount the hill again and look with different eyes at the adobe structures. A short rainbow appears in the desert. For a moment the clouds part on the horizon in the east and the sunlight falls onto a snow covered mountain range. It seems to float in the sky.

It starts to rain again and in no time I am soaked. Hail clatters down and people hurry down. 

We find a small restaurant where the waiter tells us it hasn’t rained like this for seven years. Lightning flashes, the windows are fogged. Part of the restaurant has no wall and the rain slashes in. With brooms the water is swept out again.

We enjoy our food, even though I am a bit cold because of my wet clothes. But hot mint tea helps.

During a dry moment we walk back to the Hollywood Africa hotel where a hot shower awaits.

It was a good day. Saw a lot. Learned a lot. And now my diary and a good sleep.

What a blessed man I am…