Todra Gorge

When we left the Sahara we still had reduced visibility but it gradually improved.  We passed by a line of wells providing water from aqueducts buried underground.  These were constructed a long time ago to provide water for passing caravans and are not used today.  We didn't stop as sand was still blowing so the photo is taken from the van.

There is a chain of wells like this.  They are side by side for many kilometres.  

We stopped at the town of Erfoud to visit a black marble factory.  The marble this area has an incredible number of fossils and at the factory they made furniture and other objects from the stone.  The marble mine is government owned and it limits the supply.

Black marble with fossils.

For the past few days we have passed security check  points.  Most times our van was waved through but a couple of times our van’s electronic log book was checked.  Here bus/mini van drivers must take a 15 minute rest every 2 hours, the log book records the driving time and speed the vehicle has travelled at.  

At Todra Gorge a group of us chose to take a guided walk to visit a Berber home in the mountains.  We started at the gorge where towering cliffs were separated by a river and a road and climbed for 90 minutes, gaining 600 metres in height.  During our climb we meet a 9 year old boy who along with his 12 year old brother were shepherding goats.  Several times a day they would take their herd of 60-70 goats down to the river (and back again). He was amazed to learn that stock in New Zealand were all fenced in.

Where the Berber family were living they had made a rock walled pen for the goats and had dug small caves into the hillside to make a place for cooking and for personal space.  At night they sleep outside, it can get down to -5 degrees.

We were welcomed by the father of the family, an 80 year old whose second wife is about 40 years old.  His first wife died, she preferred to live in the town but his second wife likes the nomadic life.  He has 12 children from his two wives.  Only he and two small children were at home.  The boy we meet on our way up was one of his sons.

We sat in a shelter made from a few rocks and shaded with a woven cloth and had lemon thyme tea and bread.  The lemon thyme grows nearby.  The tea was good and most of us had a second glass.  It was a great experience to be welcomed so warmly by this humble man.  

Serving tea to welcome you is a big thing here, usually it's mint tea.  Often mint tea is served at a restaurant free of charge at the end of a meal and when we arrive at a hotel we are often served mint tea before checking in.  The mint tea varies as sometimes it has sugar, which I think is normal and sometimes sugar is an option. The lemon thyme tea we had high up a mountain was a pleasant change.

We continued over and down the hill to meet the rest of our group and went to a co-operative centre where Berber women make and sell rugs.  Some make their rugs at home and just sell them through the centre. A woman was at a loom and was placing short lengths of wool in place before using a metal fork like tool to to beat the thread tight against the already woven work.  Slow and painstaking manual work.  Another woman was spinning wool using a spindle. There was an opportunity to buy rugs and the number of rugs and variety of designs was amazing.  The money from sales goes back to the makers of the rugs.

Just a few of the rugs for sale.