Hotel Nauflla Aire
Aït Benhaddou
Ouarzazate Province
Drâa-Tafilalet
Morocco
2 Nights
We left the camp at Foum Zguid after saying goodbye to Rachid the owner and headed for the fuel station just down the road. We filled up then I noticed the rear number plate was coming adrift probably the bumpy roads taking their toll. Yesterday I had
tightened all the cupboard screws that were coming loose.
Little way further and we stopped to check it was still there and Jo took the drivers seat. A three hour drive north to the town of Aït Benhaddou, a UNESCO world heritage site and location for many films including Lawrence of Arabia, The Mummy and Gladiator.
We parked up for the next two nights in a hotel car park and tomorrow we plan to walk to the ksar or old village but for now we just walked up and down the main street.
Up one end of the street was some artisan stalls selling bric a brac and a guy selling artwork scenes from the desert where he used natural pigments such as tea, sugar, indigo and saffron. The picture was a rough outline until he held it over a flame from a gas burner and the image appeared. He said this was used in the past for delivering secret messages. Either that or he buys a pack of them ready drawn but we liked it and bought one he’d just done.
