The week I fell in love with Morocco part 3-Valley of Todre Gorges -village of Rissani-Erfoud

In day 4, after a good night's sleep we continued our adventure to visit the valley of Todre Gorges--the shape of this valley is constantly changing due to the weather. Last year , heavy floods took place which had affected the shape of these valleys even further.
Driving through the valley reminded me of the Grand Canyon and would be a rock climber's dream. Maybe I'll pick up rock climbing as my next hobby--who knows.. :)

We spent a good hour just walking along the valleys and watching local families gathering for their day outing in the Gorges. Imagine u could say that u're just popping out for the day to spend a day in the Gorges... there aren't many places you could say that except for places like Morocco.
The water was very clear and cooling--we even saw a few kids jumping in for a morning swim.



We drove to the top of the valleys in order to see a panoramic view of the Todre Gorges..it was breathtaking to see the mix of oasis where there were signs of agriculture in the form of the desert and greenery.

We then continued to drive to the Er-Rachidia region which is on the edge of Erg Chebbi which is the largest sand desert in Morocco.

During our drive we stopped to see the vast number of well dunes along the desert. When I looked at the well dunes it reminded me of the story of Nabi Yusof a.s when he was thrown into the well by his brothers. We were already hot being out there in the desert in the blistering heat for a few minutes so I do not know how Nabi Yusof a.s must have felt being stranded there for days alone before he was discovered by some merchant travellers.

After a long ride on the road we finally reached the village of Rissani where we were greeted by Hafidz-the most well dressed Berber guy I have seen with his cool orange scarf and not forgetting his slippers made of goat fur....Loved it! He was our local guide in Rissani.

Firstly, he took us to the Mausoleum of Moulay Ali Cherif -a descendant of I-Hesn d Dakhl and considered to have been the founder of the Alaouite Dynasty of Morocco. An interesting fact about him was he apparently had 400 wives (I kid you not...this is what Hafidz told me)--talk about being a player right?!

We then headed to visit the Kasbah in Rissani where we met Rashid- a businessman who owned a family carpet business. He visits families living in the Saharan desert who still follow the craft of making handwoven rugs. He was very hospitable to us serving us mint tea and showed us an array of exquisite rugs....Nabiha and I ended up purchasing rugs for us to take home. I look forward to having the rug in my room back home. :)

After a long day--we were then picked up by Muhammad who wouold take us to Auberge d'Nor for our camel trek to our tents that night in the Sahara..This was the part of the trip which I had been looking forward to the most...

So if you're interested to find out what happened stay tuned for part 4. :)