Expeditions with high-school students

February 28, 2010 — Morocco

Road from Marrakech to Ouarzazate - Morocco

When I was in Morocco, I guided two groups of high-school students for their after-school trip. In both cases, the custom-tailored trip was the same and involved many activities in the country.

After the students have landed, we take a transport to go from Marrakesh to Ouled Driss with a night in Ouarzazate. It's a long drive through the Atlas Mountains in order to reach the Moroccan desert.

Ouled Driss

Locate on the map

Here we are in Ouled Driss, a town at the edge of the biggest desert on the planet, the Sahara Desert. It extends over nearly 30% of Africa and at its stretches 5000 km from east to west.

Ouled Driss has a very nice casbah where we attended to a tea ceremony. In olden days, casbahs were used as fortresses or citadels.

The casbah.

Tea ceremony.

Trek in Erg Sahel

Locate on the map

Preparations of the dromedaries before departing.

The first activity is a trek in the Erg Sahel. An erg is a region of the desert covered with dunes. Even though we are far away from the deep desert, the area visited is fantastic and the dunes are spectacular.

The trek is a mix of walking and dromedary riding, and we sleep two nights in the desert.

Our local team.

The wind is strong, stirring up the sand.

The sand is blown by the wind.

The tent where we eat our meal.

The meal for the dromedaries.

Abdellatif, our Moroccan guide (on the left) and one of the camel drivers.

Berber music around the fire.

Our cook Mohamed (on the right).

Tamnougalt

Locate on the map

Tamnougalt is a small fortified village with a ksar dating from the 16^th century.

The fortified village of Tamnougalt.

The entrance of the ksar.

The terrace of our hotel.

The hotel.

Atlas Cinema Studio

Locate on the map

The region of Ouarzazate has several cinema studio, and we visited one of them. Atlas Studio has seen the filming of some well-known movies; The Jewel of the Nile, The Living Daylights, Gladiator, Game of Thrones, etc.

I must admit that I didn't recognize any movies by looking at the decors, but the students identified several of them and it was fun to associate a set with a movie.

In many cases, there is only a facade. Behind, it is a mess of scaffolding.

The ksar of Aït-Ben-Haddou

Locate on the map

The buildings of the ksar of Aït-Ben-Haddou date from the 17^th century, but it was still founded in the 11^th century. It is entirely built with pisé and with wooden boards; pisé is a compressed mix of clay and straw. It is classified as a World Heritage Site.

View from the highest point in the ksar.

Making of pisé bricks.

Les Terres d'Amanar

Locate on the map

A site surrounded by magnificent landscapes where the students could enjoy activities such as aerial bridges, zip lines, and tree climbing (Accrobranche).