Hot and Sweaty

Ellie: It's very dry round here. Not much green stuff.
Ranaz: It's a desert you muppet
Ellie: oh yes...
Ranaz: I think Star Wars was filmed here.
Ellie: Geek.

16 hours after leaving chaotic Fez we watched the sunrise over the Atlas Mountains as we chundled across the desert to the Todra Gorge.  And what a spectacular sight it was...purples, pinks and oranges all merging together with the odd blob of star still hanging in there, sparkling away, the mountain ridge jutting out of the desert with unbelievably snowy peaks.  That soon shut our bickering up.  It certainly was a sight that ain't common where I come from! I've never seen a desert before and I think the best word to describe it is intimidatingly wild. The dry land with the odd shrubby thing stretching for eternity without seeing a building, a person, a beastie or even a pylon. I think that no pylons is the distinction between wild and really proper wild.  My thoughts at this point inadvertently strayed to an episode of Bear Ghrylls I'd seen, stranded in a desert and drinking his own pee for survival and began to wonder if I would do the same in that situation. Normal thoughts that run through the brain at 6:30 in the morning.
Climbing hysteria soon kicked in.. this was going to be incredible, but nothing prepared us for the sight of the Gorge itself...cliffs towering above for miles, millions of routes you could dedicate years to exploring and selfishly only a handful of people to share it with.  My English skin was soon turning tomato, perfect excuse for me to wrap a scarf around my head in a poor imitation of the Berber style, much to the amusement of Ranaz who pointed out various protruding facial features which caused my face to look like a red chequered cloth.
We are now encamped on the roof of a hotel in the Todra Gorge, beautiful during the day but a wee bit chilly at night when the wind rips through the valley.  By a string of coincidences we have made friends with Jamal, a Berber guy from the local village and last night we experienced our first proper introduction to Berber hospitality. Jamal lives in a 400 year old house in the midst of a labyrinth and we dined on a Berber couscous recipe, which was incredible. The food is served on one big dish and we all ate from that. The couscous at home in Sainburys is a poor comparison. Tonight is party night and tagine is on the menu. Yum cannae wait.

We started climbing yesterday, there are so many routes its hard to know where to start. Unfortunately looks like I'm being a little affected by the altitude, which I didn't even consider! Not too bad but its weird being out of breath after wandering up some stairs or running a couple of metres, tres bizarre.
The route we did was about 30m, and unfortunately wasn't that exciting, but I'm sure there are going to be hundreds out there. The rock is awesome though, back to monos and sharp little points to rip the fingers on, and its do nice to have sticky feet again!!!

Looks like we may be here a while... Oh and we have met the infamous Hassan of climbing legend, he's so the man to know!
If you ever need him he's at the hotel mansour or la vallee every morning.