At 5am, we woke up to hike the mammoth sand dune nearby. It was purported to have an elevation of 900 meters, but it turns out it’s only 600 meters above sea level. (more…)
Archive for October, 2008
Merzouga to Marrakech
Thursday, October 9th, 2008Todra Gorge to Merzouga
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008Finally, I wake up feeling human. I’m still fatigued and suffering hot/cold chills, but I’m good enough to climb a couple pitches. Barry offers to give me a belay at the crag behind the hotel, so I shimmy my way up the red limestone. The texture is awesome, it’s sharp and scraggly. It reminded me of the rock up at Mt. Charleston, NV.
I climbed a 5.6 extremely runout pitch to warm up, it only had 4 bolts for the whole pitch. But, the climbing was so easy, I was not worried.
The second climb was a 5.7, and I think there were only 3 bolts on it.
The third one was a dihedral, probably 5.8, and it was my favorite. After doing the third climb, I was starting to feel sick again, so we headed over to the cafe for some juice and a light snack. (more…)
Todra Gorge – Sick Days
Monday, October 6th, 2008On Monday & Tuesday, I was extremely ill with a severe case of traveler’s stomach. Jon & Barry managed to climb on Monday, but by Monday night they too were ill. (more…)
Marrakech to Todra Gorge
Sunday, October 5th, 2008At 8am, Ibrahim came to pick us up. We walked to the taxi station and got into his Toyota Forerunner. Immediately, he started to point out things along the way, and he’d offer to pull the truck over, if we wanted to take a picture.
As we approached the mountains, the road became narrower and windy. We passed a lot of rock & gem stalls which the area is famous for.
It took a couple hours to make it over the Tizi N Tichka pass. I could see why this road is so dangerous. In areas, it is in a state of disrepair, and there are a million blind corners. There were many vehicles that had no business travelling, and were either way to loaded down or just about to fall apart. (more…)
Casablanca to Marrakech
Friday, October 3rd, 2008We woke up early in order to catch the 9:30am train to Marrakech. Our European hotel provided a nice petit de journer, in the form of a buffet.
We took some pictures from the roof of our hotel, and then headed off for the train. We just barely made it, and the train was so packed. For about an hour, we sat in the hallway of the train waiting for a seat to become available. Finally, Jon & Barry located an empty 1st class cabin. BTW, when traveling the Marrakech Express, just purchase a 2nd class ticket and sit in the 1st class cabin. Nobody really cares, or bothers to check. (more…)