Thursday March 14, 2019
We slept a bit late, and went down for breakfast at 8 am. The spread was fantastic, but since we’d had a several course dinner that finished at 10 pm the night before, we weren’t all that hungry. I wished I could have eaten more. The small white pots on the tray are all filled with delicious varieties of homemade jams including lemon, fig and quince.
Although Chez Pierre was a wonderful property, one of the things that surprised us a bit about it was that there was no good hiking accessible from the hotel. We had wandered the village and the trail along the river, but couldn’t pick up any good paths through the gorge from there.
So we inquired about local hiking at the front desk and within half an hour a guide showed up who would take us on a circuit through the Monkey Fingers formation a little ways down the road.
So we packed up our things and met Abdul at 10:30, and all 6 of us, including the guide, drove down to the pedestrian bridge that marked the start of our route. It began by leading through a small cluster of houses and farms (and a cemetery) before reaching the ‘entrance’ to the canyon.
From there we hiked, climbed, scrambled and chimneyed our way through.
This was a lot of fun, and much more than ‘just a hike’.
The closest thing we’ve done that I can liken it to is the Fiery Furnace hike at Arches National Park in Utah.
We came out the other side up higher than we’d started, with gorgeous views over the valley and some crumbling kasbahs, and from there we followed a standard hiking trail back to the beginning. The price of the guide for the route was 300 Dh which was very well worth it.
We left the guide at the trailhead at his request, and continued by car with Abdul to our next hotel, Irocha, in the town of Tisseldey.
Along the way, we backtracked through the Dades Valley and Ouarzazate.
Once we got to Irocha, we were shown to our room, which is rustic but comfortable, yet quite spartan.
However the property as a whole is really nice, with a lovely terrace and common areas, and again with several pet cats on the premises.
We started with welcome tea and peanuts on the pool deck (the pool is lovely, but as with all the pools we’ve seen this week, very, very cold!)
Chad went for a hike up the hillside to a nearby Kasbah, and I hiked down to the road and took a stroll through the local village. The kids connected with their friends via the free wifi in the lounge.
I set up a timelapse on my camera overlooking the valley and mosque below us, and read for a bit out on the terrace. I was hoping to catch the call to prayer, but it never did come over the loudspeaker. (This was a common theme throughout the week. I consulted published guides notifying us when the call to prayer would be heard, but it seemed the actual times never matched up with the published times!)
We gathered in the dining room for dinner at 7:30 and had vegetable soup, chicken with olives, mixed vegetables and rice, with flan for dessert. There are a number of board games available for guest use and Mallory taught us all how to play a card game called Cheat before we retired for the night.
Cook Family Travels 