Ouarzazate to Marrakesh

Matthew was feeling much better on Sunday morning, so we started our journey towards Marrakesh with plans to stop at interesting sights along the way.

Our first sight however didn't require a stop, it was the vehicle that we followed out of Ouarzazate. Loaded at the top were bicycles, haybales, goats and sheep.

We saw a few of these  and one guy who decided his animals needed a feed, so he picked them up and lowered them down to his mate on the verge, who let them go.
Very amusing.

We soon reached the signpost, where we turned to visit the famous kasbar where some of the scenes from Gladiator (including the arena scenes), Jewel of the Nile and Lawrence of Arabia were filmed: Ait Benhaddou.

We had to stop along the way though, as there were camels (Matt wouldn't have a ride, but he did sit on one for me) and it was also a great place to view the kasbar.

We found a spot to park the car and a guy offered to be our guide (Cameron bartered him down to 100 dirhams, just as well because he had very little English but a bit of French), so we followed him through the buildings and into Ait Benhaddou.

We entered a cavern in the kasbar where a man showed us photos and props from Gladiator (he worked on the set) and then led us through the rooms (there was even a place up the top for his sheep).

We wandered all the way to the top admiring the view. (and allowing Matt frequent stops as his energy levels were still not high)

Then it was back to   through some small towns and onto the Tizi n'Tichka pass to Marrakesh, which is a 3 hour drive along a narrow, windy road, very close to the edge of the mountains with few guard rails. I was in the front so could see them all
(think I prefer the back).

But it was awesome scenery tho.

Eventually though we made it to Marrakesh and then it was up to me to navigate our way into the medina and then to our riad. We got through the gate and very slowly went through the street as there were people and stalls.  Suddenly a boy on a bike swerved around a person and fell onto the road, his bike skidded to a stop just in front of our car. Cameron hit the brakes and we watched as the boy got off up off the road (with a large graze on his head) and the man on the scooter next to us rattled something off to the boy and some other people in Arabic. He motioned us to go once the bike had been taken away so we moved forward and next thing, there was all this shouting and people chasing the car. We stopped the car again and once more the man on the scooter explained what happened and got us out of there. He led us out of the street, found us a carpark and directed us to the hotel. (200 dirhams). Never was so glad to see a hotel.