Rising early, we shower, dress and go out to the upper patio to watch the sun rise over the gorge. The sunlight seems to set the steep rock faces on fire as the reddish stone is lit. We soon rejoin the group for breakfast and Kate is happy to learn the cook will make her omelets for breakfast. As we finish our meal Mohamed urges us to pack a day pack for today's' hike over the gorge. We meet our guide Aziz and load ourselves in the van for a short drive through the gorge to the trail head. Flooding has caused some washout to the road and we have a longer hike than Mohamed anticipated but I find the early start to the hike a welcome alternative to more time spent in the van. We follow the river as six hundred foot vertical rock faces climb over each bank. Vegetation is scarce as we walk and soon we round a bend and start our climb up a gently rising slope. Our hike is now following an adjacent gorge and we enjoy having clear blue skies overhead. Aziz points to a rock face on the opposite side of the gorge and tells us Tom Cruise was here filming a rock climbing sequence for one of the "Mission Impossible" movies.
We continue climbing and soon we crest the ridge. Several of us scramble up a nearby rock face to grab a better vantage point and the view is well worth it. The bare brown mountains fall away in all directions. a few clouds dot the blue sky. Aziz too soon prods us to continue and we hike down a trail leading to a rare wide flat area overlooking a valley. Aziz tells us this is an old football field and comments are made about retrieving a wayward ball might take half the day. Scaling another mountain or two we arrive at a small Berber settlement consisting of a long Berber tent and three small caves cut into the mountainside.
Aziz introduces us to our host, his wife and two children and explains that this is their home and every morning the 81 year old husband and one of his two wives hikes down the mountain for water and supplies, then returns. The forty year old wife is busy preparing a meal as the husband serves us mint tea to welcome us into his home. The two very robust children play nearby, one is 18 months, the other is four years old. Aziz also tells us the man has one other wife and 14 other children, I don't remember how many grandchildren. Peter opens up a bottle of soapy water and bubble rings and starts blowing soap bubbles for the kids. The children are soon Peter's best friend and he produces another bottle and ring which he presents to the children. We learn much of their way of life before bidding thank yous and farewells. As we leave we pass the family's horses on our descent.
Climbing down, we follow a narrow faint path through rock fields, scree and loose dirt before returning to the bottom of the deep gorge. We enter a kasbah and are led upstairs to a room overlooking the streets below. Our hostess offers us a seat on rugs of the floor and prepares mint tea to welcome us, but asks us not to take her picture. She then offers us a lunch of Berber pizza, which is flat bread with a pesto of tomato, onion, peppers and seasonings on top. After lunch Aziz and Mohomed lead us downstairs, through the streets, then into a building and up more steps where we find a woman making a rug. We settle in and a the proprietor enters offering mint tea and then begins explaining how the rugs are made, from spinning and dying the wool to the finished product. Then the sale begins, many samples and items are brought in and laid out as our host explains the meanings of the patterns, the durability of the items and how inexpensive they all are. Several start haggling as Kate and I decide which rug and what is the largest size we will be comfortable carrying around for the remainder of our journey. Kate decides which pattern and we're told it's an ancient Berber pattern and after much bag and forth bargaining a price is agreed to and we have our rug bundled and re-join the group outside.
Following Mohamed, we start walking down a street but quickly dive onto a path cutting through the dense riverside foliage of the palmery. In places we almost have to bushwhack our way through the lush greenery and gardens. After perhaps three miles we start climbing a slope and pass several homes and inns. As we near the Taborite Mohamed points to his family's home and we meet his sister nearby. By late afternoon we arrive back at our kasbah and sit to relax on the deck as the rest of the group trickles through the front gate. Mohamed asks if any of us are interested in visiting the Hammam, or Turkish steam bath, located in town. Pete, Peter, Len, Ed and I, as well as Natasha, Nicole and Patsy (*I think) all take Mohamed up on his offer. So we grab a towel, load into the van and head to town.
We arrive in Tinghir and Abdul drops us off, Mohamed leads us to the Hammam offering advice like "Don't go nude" and "relax and enjoy it". We walk down a side street and divert down an alleyway before arriving. Mohamed points the girls to their door and leads us into the men's baths. Mohamed speaks to the man behind the counter in Arabic, I'm sure the exchange was along the lines of "fresh meat", "nervous" and "please go easy on them" were most likely some of the phrases used. We each pay the cashier for a full treatment, we're given some supplies, then move to the "cold" room where we each strip to our skivvies then head to the steam room. We find ourselves in next room, which is the "warm room", we stop here and grab a water bucket from a stack along the wall. There are hot and cold water faucets on the wall and we fill our buckets then sit for a few minutes on the warm tile floor.
The rooms and water are heated by a wood burning furnace under the floor. A few moments later we're led to the "hot" room and gestured to stay here. We are a small group of sweaty, English speaking, Caucasian males sitting in their underwear on a roasting hot tile floor amid the local Arab speaking Moroccans. With the wide-eyed looks on our faces we couldn't have felt any more out of place if we were out side in the main town square in the same predicament. Soon an English speaking local sits beside me and introduces himself as Mustafa and ridiculously asks the painfully obvious "Is this your first time?", to which I sheepishly answer the even more obvious "yes". He then asks if we're getting massages and we tell him yes. He instructs me to just relax and lie down to get all my muscles warm and relaxed and go with it when the massage starts.
We exchange pleasant conversation and soon a man comes in and covers us all in date oil from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet and gestures us to stay put and stay down. A short while later a man enters with a bucket and fills it from the faucets, he mixes and tediously checks the temperature, making adjustments often as the bucket fills. The man then puts on a defoliating glove (sandpaper) and starts "sanding" the outer layers of our skin from our bodies and yes, it is painful but not intolerable. After most of our skin is scraped away, the carefully mixed water is dumped unceremoniously over our heads and feels refreshingly great. Then we're again gestured to wait before a short time later another man enters and the massage starts. We are each separately placed in various positions by our masseuse and stretched from painful positions in very painful directions, this seems more Greco-Roman wrestling than massage but we each endure the often painful experience. I use a grunt to let the torturer know when he's at a point that further movement will require hospitalization. Again we're dowsed with a bucket of water and now we're gestured to move to the "warm" room. Here we acclimate before another man enters with a bucket of water, soap and shampoo. He then proceeds to wash all the remaining oil and dead skin from us and after rinsing we return to the "cold" room and get dressed and await Mohamed's return. Stepping outside we find night has fallen as we join the women and walk back to the waiting van. Arriving back at the Taborite, we meet in the dining room and order our meals while enjoying drinks and exchange our evenings' experiences. Dinner is soon served and the hardy meals quickly consumed, a little conversation and everyone heads to an early-ish night.
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