Marrakech to the Kasbah du Toubkal

During the pounding and epic rainstorms that came forth from the Moroccan skies on our first day we wandered through the souk -- or the various souks -- and paid a brief visit to an Apothecary. On his walls (all four of them, save the space for the door) he had various pots and jars full of wild & wacky, or at least native, remedies for any number of ailments from sinus ache to foot ache, including black soap for the hammam and scruby bits for same...but he arranged his shop in the most amazing way and I got this photograph of, without question, the most colorful piece of pharmacopia I have ever seen ... isn't that great?? I was most pleased with that bit of photography.

Post-Apothecary (and I did buy some of the sinus-clearing stuff--truly amazing) we trudged off through the spitting wet for lunch at a nearby restaurant that happened to have a stunning view of the Koutobia Mosque, seventy (70) meters high, completed in the twelfth century by Sultan Yacoub el Mansour and called that which "established the classic Moroccan design": a 1:5 ratio of width to height, extraordinary scale and breathtaking no matter where you stand in the old city.



Here, with luck, you can see the Diluvian Deluge that set upon us on that first day...this picture is taken from the courtyard of the riad where we stayed -- said courtyard open to the skies -- just before we set out for our first real Moroccan meal we were beset by a series of rainstorms that were decidedly trying to make us miserable (see "six to twelve inches of snow," above) ... but eventually we emerged from the lovely covered terrace on the roof of our riad and went forth into Marrakech for an early evening meal, to prepare for the trip to the Djebel Toubkal on the next day, where we would spend the rest of the week.



And here is a picture of the cart that carried our luggage -- and the bloke who hauled the cart that carried our luggage -- out from the twisty pedestrian streets where our riad stood into the Djemma el Fna (the main square of the Medina) where our mini-bus picked us up for our voyage into the mountains to the Kasbah du Toubkal, at the trailhead of the Djebel Toubkal (highest mountain in Morocco/North Africa) (on which, more later).

Alas the unseasonal storms (...six-to-twelve inches of snow in the mountains, remember?) had caused a few landslides along our road...in fact, we got stuck in traffic jam in a village on the way, with our Houcein our Moroccan Guide and at least a thousand other people trying to figure out the best way forward ...



Which turned out partly on foot: while mules carried our luggage we picked our way across the major mudslide that took out the road:



And looked forward to trekking along the clear bits of road that would ultimately take us to the Kasbah! An unexpected day's walk in gorgeous weather--no complaints!