So from Rabat we drove for a full day towards Todra Gorge bush camping along the way. The weather has been awful. Cold and constant rain. We got to the Todra turnoff, 10km away from the gorge and found out that the road to the gorge was shut. This was a major disappointment for all as it was such a long drive to get there. We waited for about 3 hours to see if the road would open and the rain would lift. It didn't though so we decided to head to Marrakech. On the way we had another very wet bush camp which meant that we had a muddy and wet truck dig out the next morning.
We stopped at Ait Benhaddou which is UNESCO site Kasbah, a fortified village. Only a few people live there now and there has been lots of restoration due to its use as a film location. Due to the rain there were no other tourists visiting when we went for a look around which was great. Sadly for the people who live there the buildings were crumbling right in front of us as they are just made of clay from the river mixed with straw. The river was very fast flowing. The locals are saying that this is the worst flooding in over 5o years and usually you can access the kasbah through the main gates by using stepping stones through the river!
We didn't get very far before our next stop, just a few kilometres from Ait Benhaddou. The rain had washed away bridges on the road to Marrakech and the other road to Agadir was also shut due to surface water flowing over. We were completely stuck in a little village. After waiting the whole day on the side of the road we camped overnight and joined the queue the following morning waiting for the road to open. Steve still wanted us to get to Marrakech and Essaouira so we headed towards Agadir when the road opened at 11am the next morning and had a long drive. With a quick stop to cook our tea at the roadside we drove until gone 11pm to get to 60km from Marrakech.
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