Day 14 - Dades Gorge - Zagora

We had an early buffet breakfast this morning before we met our driver for more travelling today. Our adventures took us through the famous valleys and gorges of Morocco, passing the ‘Monkey Fingers’ rock formation.

During the drive, my 4 years of Earth Science was slowly coming back to me and I was able to work out how the certain formations were formed, explaining Dades Gorge using all sort of moving shapes with my arms that even Hassan thought I was losing it. Thankfully, a quick google search reiterated my explanations so my time in Glasgow came in handy, not only helping Tennents’ profits soar!

Apparently, others on this tour trip like to walk the long and winding road of Dades Gorge. It was about a 2hr walk uphill and Anna suggested we drive it in 10 minutes instead. Just a few hundred metres from the top, we were out of the car to take a picture and Hassan drove off, telling us we could at least walk the rest. It was like fat camp and we had no other option than to walk the final 100m ourselves. Fair play to us!

At the top, we overlooked the snaking road up the mountain that thankfully we passed on walking up. It was lovely at the top but it is to be even more spectacular during spring and winter. The valleys are greener, sometimes with snow at the top and an abundance of waterfalls. We could pick out the number of abandoned water cut streams through the rock and tried to imagine it flowing with water as best as we could.

I think Hassan got the hint that these mountains and valleys weren’t doing it for Anna and from then on, it was just a case of roll down your window for a picture and off we go. We travelled through the Moroccan countryside, which was a bit like a sandier and drier version of rural Donegal actually.

Anna used this time to visit the little girls’ room, except it was more of a square room with a hole in the middle of the floor. It even required the owner of the restaurant to put water in a bucket and for Anna, it was certainly an experience. Afterwards, Hassan was laughing at how easy guys have it when it comes to using the toilet, and his mind was blown when I explained what a she-wee was. It’s a gamechanger…. or so I’ve heard.

We drove through Morocco’s equivalent to the Grand Canyon and followed a small dirt track when we entered a small village near Zagora. We didn’t know where we were going but ended up at the doors of Dar Hnini, where we would be staying tonight.

This was definitely an oasis in the desert! The high walls blocked out the sandy and arid village and land around us and inside was full of trees and water, grass and paths through the garden, even a pool for a family of turtles. As we were checking in, we were also told that we were the only guests for the night, so essentially we would have the place to ourselves.

We settled into our luxury suite before having a huge lunch by the pool. They really love their food here and it’s like a conveyor belt of courses, even I was struggling to eat it all! During lunch, it was the first time on our trip where Anna and I were a bit cold - not to say that we were freezing but we both thought that it must have only been 30 degrees today. It turned out it was 43 degrees. Finally, we’re like the locals!

The rest of the day was spent by the pool, finally catching up on everything with our wifi and exploring the grounds of Dar Hnini. We even enjoyed a swim in the pool as the heavens opened above us and it was bucketing for around 10 minutes.

For dinner, we were told to meet at the main pool and when we arrived, we were greeted with a single table on the grass, covered in roses and surrounded by candles. We had our very own candlelit dinner and were serenaded by our waiter, who told us countless stories about his time working in Dubai and for the Moroccan King. It would be safe to say all 3 of us had a great dinner by candlelight.