TRAVELWITHZOE

By this point in the one month Morocco trip, I’d spent a day in Marrakesh and a week in Zagora doing a Workaway (volunteering in exchange for accommodation and food). I decided I wanted to slowly move towards the coast from Zagora, so I looked at a map and decided it would make sense to stop at a place called Tinghir for a few nights.

You might already know I’m a fan of the Couchsurfing app, which I’ve used to find local hosts (they invite travellers to sleep on their couch or spare bed) and also to find local people to meet up with. Something new happened to me with the Couchsurfing app this time… the person who offered to host me in Tinghir was actually the manager of a riad/guesthouse/hotel, so instead of a spare bed or couch, he offered me a room in the guesthouse!

I had accepted my host’s invitation around 5 days before heading there, and I booked a bus/coach from Zagora to Tinghir 1 or 2 days in advance. I used the CTM bus company, and it involved two buses (approximately a 3 hour ride to Ouarzazate, and then a 3 and a half hour ride from there to Tinghir).

The wait in Ouarzazate was several hours long, and I was happy that I got the chance to wander around there. Apparently it’s kind of famous because some movie scenes were shot there, including parts of Gladiator and Game of Thrones. Anyways, I personally liked this archway and I ate lunch at a restaurant looking out at the pretty square.

My Couchsurfing host had explained to me that he’s often very busy managing the guesthouse, so he sent me the Google Maps pin drop and told me to walk there from the bus stop. I arrived in Tinghir some time around 8pm, bought some phone credit (you don’t even want to know how much money I spent on phone credit on this trip… sigh) and found the hotel very easily, as it was on the main road.

When I walked in, my Couchsurfing host was working at the little reception area and he immediately knew it was me, so we chatted for about 10 minutes, he showed me to my room and then said he had to go back to work and that we would speak in the morning and I could Whatsapp him if I needed anything. Honestly I was exhausted after spending a week in the busy family home at the Workaway in Zagora, so it felt amazing to have a room to myself for the night, and I pretty much went to bed straight away.

The next morning I spoke to my Couchsurfing host down by the reception, but he was quite busy so he said it would be best that I did my own thing that day, and that we could hang out the next day. He recommended the Toudra Gorge as something I could do by myself, and he got his friend to walk me to the shared taxi station to help me get on the right one (after I’d got some lentils and bread from a local cafe for lunch).

The shared taxi from Tinghir to the Toudra Gorge was 8 Dirhams (less than £1) per person and it took around 30 minutes, and I felt pretty car-sick by the time I arrived because the roads were quite bendy.

The Toudra Gorge definitely seemed to be a popular spot… There were lots of different types of tourists there (backpackers, old couples, big organised tour groups etc.), loads of photos being taken and loads of local people selling souvenirs along the side of the road. It’s basically a road surrounded by a gorge, and a river running alongside it.

I walked alone this road for about 10 minutes and then eventually it turned a corner and I realised I’d left most of the tourists behind. I saw a path with some steps on it and decided to see what was up there.

It was basically a rocky/hilly area and it wasn’t really clear where the path was after a while, but I just picked random directions to walk in. There were some clothes and huge water containers lying around by some of the rocks, and even a small puppy tied up with a rope, so it seemed like maybe some people lived there.

At one point a man actually appeared from behind a rock and we tried to communicate but we couldn’t speak the same language. It was super peaceful up there and I ended up just sitting on a rock for a while to eat my snacks and relax.

After heading back to Tinghir in a shared taxi, I was hungry so I went into a random cafe in the town and asked if they had beans or lentils. They said no, and I asked where I could find something vegetarian, and the other customer in the shop said she could show me.

She spoke quite good English and she told me she’s a waitress in a touristy restaurant at the other end of town. Anyway, she showed me a cafe around the corner where I ate loubia (white beans) and she sat at my table as I was eating because we were still chatting.

I immediately got good vibes from here – I found her quite funny and she seemed very honest and down to earth. She invited me to her house on the outskirts of the town, so I said yes, and we walked there after I had finished eating.

At her house, I met her two sisters, her mum and her nephew and we drank tea and ate the most amazing dates which had been picked that day from outside the house apparently. We spoke about topics like boys, TV shows and work. Her house was made from mud and she told me they have to strengthen the structure once per year to make sure it can withstand the weather etc. She said it’s kind of dangerous to live in mud houses because sometimes they can collapse, but she said the good thing is that it only cost about 200 euros to build in the first place. It had pretty good views from the rooftop:

The next day I hung out in Tinghir with my Couchsurfing host on his break from work. He showed me some parts of the town that I hadn’t seen yet, and we went fruit shopping together etc. When he went back to work I mostly just chilled on the hotel roof terrace and used the wifi to do some work online, make a few calls and plan the next parts of my trip.

The next day I headed to a different Couchsurfing host in a town called Er-Rich (coming in Morocco diaries part 5).