April 17, 2014  
KASBAH ITRAN to GORGES du DADÉS 133 km
Riad Bleu Afriqua. 300 Dh (dbl with BF)
30C, sun, clouds, torrential rain, lightning and hail! 
 
Shortly after noon, we reluctantly pulled ourselves away from Kasbah Itran and headed in the direction of Gorge du Dades.

It proved to be a stunningly scenic route past beautiful towns and villages, more kasbahs, following a thin greenbelt near river bed and fields of alfalfa and wheat, almond and olive orchards down deep canyons. 
 
 

Monkey's Fingers and Hairpins

Boumalne du Dades is the town at the mouth of the Gorge du Dades where we turned left up and into the Dades Gorge. Clouds closed in above us letting only minutes of sunshine light up the picturesque settings of mud-stone villages, the color of them depending on the color of rock appearing in the mountains surrounding them. The knobby golden sand colored rocks, forming part of the canyon walls, are called the monkey's fingers. As the canyon walls closed in from the left and right, a final stint of hairpins, not for the faint of heart, got us to a spectacular high viewpoint with the gorge's river deep below us. 

We decided to continue on through more canyons and hoped to get on the loop to Todra Gorge. More spectacular panoramas opened before us beckoning us to continue. We talked to a gent who said the gorge-to-gorge connecting road is usually done only by 4-wheel drive vehicles. But, he thought, if we were willing to go slow enough, we could get through in our little 2-WD Suzuki with 12" tires. Just what we wanted to hear! 
 
We stopped for a forgettable lunch, salad was 75% raw onion, meat was shoe leather and fruit was past ts prime. They have a big sign out front showing that they are recommended in the French guidebook "Le Guide du Routard." There, we talked to a pair of French cyclists, a couple, who planned to complete the gorge-to-gorge ride the next morning. She especially looked knackered. The ride up from Boumalne du Dades is not a small undertaking.
 

Let's Go For It!
 
We discussed again the wisdom of trying the gorge-to-gorge route and decided to go for it. We'd make the loop, on piste, with the GPS navigation assistance of Dave's cell. 10 km onward, we came to a turnout to a gravel pit and a guy waved our car over to the side to talk. He said there are actually two ways to get from gorge to gorge. One way, we could get through in our car. And the other, we couldn't. And he was willing to ride with us and show us right road, for appropriate compensation. Neither of us cared for his approach and we told him we'd try to find our way on our own, thanks. He arrogantly spewed, "you'll be back."


The blue dot GPS position showed the required turn was less than a kilometer from where he stood. But we could see no tracks. We drove on for a few kilometers and asked a young boy. He said we needed to go back two kilometers, then turn left.   We drove up a side road after returning a few kilometers and the tracks were more slanted and steeper than we'd want to go. That way was nowhere we wanted go in our pitiful little car...and we didn't know if we were on the correct road. After another pass at the spot shown by our blue GPS dot, we decided the cosmic forces were telling us to give up and go back down the canyon. We got back to the turn-out where the arrogant ass was still standing. And sure enough, he shouted out, "I told you you'd be back!" We waved and shouted back, "Have a great day!" and sped on by. 

Rain clouds moved in but we were not hit by rain. It was hail! Not big, maybe the size of peas. But that's got to be unusual for the desert, even at this altitude.

 
Night at Bleu Afriqua

Back at the tight series of hairpin switchback, there are two hotels. Riad Bleu Afriqua is the one perched against the wall and looked more interesting. Dave had to hunt for the proprietor. He gave us a grand room with a view for 300dr, including breakfast. He gave us the registration book and asked us to fill in our personal details. We noted the prior customers had stayed three weeks earlier. 
 
We knew they did not have WiFi before we checked in. But now we realized there was no electricity either. Our host explained that power lines have not been pulled to this part of the canyon. He said he would put on the generator at sundown and keep it running until about 11PM. What more could we ask? We had had the large lunch so asked for just soup and Moroccan salad for dinner.  Dave continued his winning streak at cards.