Another Day, Another Gorge

Today we head for Erfoud. On this day, Mike decided that he knew where he was going so we left out before the group. However, we didn't know where we were going after all. We realized, after not too long, that we were going in the opposite direction. We'd worked out a meeting point with the rest of the group. Instead of being the first to arrive at the meeting place, we were the last to arrive. Couldn't think of any good excuses, so just came clean with the whole 'lost' story.

We met at the entrance to the Gorge du Todra. The landscape was very similar to the Gorge du Dades that we rode through yesterday. This was a short riding day with no scheduled lunch. So, after our coffee break, Mike and I rode on and explored the Gorge. We rode and rode and rode. After we got out of the canyon area, there was very little traffic and we rode along a nice winding peaceful road. We came to a 'T' in the road in a little village. We were trying to decide if we should turn back or try and make a long loop around to Erfoud. A local kid came up to the bike while we were debating. He was very nice, I gave him some crackers and cookies. In the end, we decided to turn around.

Thousands and thousands of palm trees in the valley leading into the Gorge. Loved it!

Sheep were everywhere!!

This was the scenery we saw on the long road leading out of the Gorge.

We came upon a camel herd on the road to Erfoud. We stopped to take a picture. The camel herder (I guess that's what'd you call him) came running after me so I booked it back to the bike and we took off. He probably wanted me to pay him for the picture.

We weren't with the group, but Jens, one of our tour guides, had told us to stop at some wells along the road, that it was pretty neat. There were tons of vendors set up along the wells and we picked one that looked good. It was called Place of Relaxation. These were old irrigation wells and they were built in rows. The wells were linked underground to each other. To prove this, one of the guys went down one well and came up at another. Just to prove that he wasn't a twin, I wrote my name on his hand so he could prove it was the same person. Turns out that the group had stopped there too because also written on his hand was Edelweiss.

After his little gopher trick, we set under their tent and, of course, had mint tea. The tent was tended to by three brothers. They spoke really good English. They said they'd learned from talking to tourist. I was impressed! They told us a little about their lives. They would go into the village to use the Internet! I really enjoyed our visit with them. They were very very nice.

Can you see all of the wells??

The well demonstration is about to begin!