“Rock climbing & gladiator kasbah of Ait Benhaddou” Chooklotto’s photos around Ait Ben Haddou

Preview of Chooklotto's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chooklotto/4/1210898100/tpod.html This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Ait Ben Haddou, Morocco Entry Title: "Rock climbing & gladiator kasbah of Ait Benhaddou" Entry: "Well I slept ok thanks to the best travelers tool on the market - most of the others who didn't have earplugs were kept awake by some really loud snoring - I woke up only once and it felt like the floor was vibrating! We were up around 7am and packed up the room then went outside had had some bread and jam. Just after 8 we put on our backpacks and set off down the dry river bed and walked for bloody ages. It was awkward because you had to walk with your head down to make sure you had a steady step. Our favourite donkey came for the ride and we stopped once to let him eat and rest (and for us to do the same thing!). We walked back over to the same trail as yesterday, said goodbye to the donkey then hit the canyons for a bit of boulder climbing! It was great - sliding down rock faces, positioning feet, trying to avoid pools of water (one time without success) and basically sucking it in to squeeze through little gaps... I love d it and had a great time - i wish we could have done it all afternoon - we eventually made it out and down to the stream. We took our shoes and socks off and pulled up our trousers to cross it - taking a while to negotiate the slippery rocks below. We made it up the hill and crossed the road and were back at our unfinished kasbah and water....! We were all hanging for a huge skull of the stuff... Vegging out under the shade we ate the rest of our snacks and waited for some taxi's to come and pick us up - our guide Sayed sent the Berber bus instead - something from the 1960's - it had all these flowers and plants and cd's and tinsel hanging from the roof near the driver. We made it to Boulmane (we picked up one local on the way - he wasn't sure if he should get on the bus - him in a van with 10 foreigners.!). As soon as we stopped we had to scramble to make our connecting bus to Ouarzazate - luckily for us it had left 15 mins late. We had the crazy driver who sped along very quickly. We did stop for lunch at a roadhouse/restaurant and the only thing on the menu was a tagine so me & Sophie shared one, no cutlery - hand only and it was a chops and potatoes one - really fatty but so yum. Our bus was ready to leave and was practically pulling away (we knew this about 2 seconds before) and we found a bit juicy bit of meat - after grabbing it we quickly ran to get on the moving bus - the conductor was a little mad but we didn't know! oops At the bus station we were picked up by Mohammed our mini-van driver and were taken to a local establishment which made prosthetic limbs and helped people who had a disability learn a new craft - very interesting and I bought a little decorative mini tagine pot. We drove past the Atlas movie studios - Morocco's version of Universal studios and saw some of the movie sets, the Mummy, Kingdom of Heaven and Gladiator were all filmed partly here. Finally we arrived in Ait Benhaddou around 6pm - most of the others went for the walk up to see the kasbah on the top of the hill - I stayed back and had a long hot shower. I wandered down the street not long after and saw the kasbah from ground level. (Gladiator filmed here - as was Lawrence of Arabia). A few of the others met me down the street and we walked back in the darkness to the hotel, meeting the rest for some more harira soup n salad.... It had been a long day so I crashed pretty early in a comfy bed with no snorers around.." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chooklotto/4/1210898100/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. "View through nomad camp window" 2. "Start of the walk back" 3. "The ry river bed we walked and walked" 4. "Dades gorge monkey feet" 5. "Our group of monkeys" 6. "Start of the canyoning" 7. "Ducking and weaving under rocks" 8. "Until open spaces" 9. "Inside of our Berber bus" 10. "Atlas Movie studios at Ouarzazate" 11. "The kasbah at Ait Benhaddou" See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00c0-2a4e-ef4b?ytv4=1