Page 181 - WDT MAGAZINE PORTUGAL

grove while on our honeymoon, when ancient kasbahs patiently amidst the general cacophony for the
in various stages of disrepair clung to the sides of the services of barbers/bloodletters, in the hope that the
miles-long palm canyon. Today, no square meter is left loss of a few ounces of blood would maintain them in
undeveloped. Most jolting is the forest of barabool, a good health and protect them from the oppressive
phonetic rendition of the French word parabole, heat.
satellite dish. Happily, despite a recent drought, Under another tent, a small pile of fractured
gurgling seguias, irrigation ditches fed by the melting dental roots advertises the prowess of the itinerant
snows of the Atlas, meander through vegetable fields dentist. But El Kalaa’s main industry is the cultivation
and blossoming orchards. Unchanged is the clip-clop of Damascene roses. In May and early June, the air is
of donkeys echoing under the green cathedral of awash in the scent of blooms, and baskets
palms. overflowing with delicate
Puffs of fragrant smoke pink flowers occupy an
rise from beehive ovens entire section of the souk.
holding round loaves of Indeed, France’s best-
anise-scented hobz (bread), known parfumeurs rely on
an essential component of the annual harvest to
the Moroccan diet. Women create some of the world’s
in traditional haiks, bend at most expensive scents.
the waist to weed family Each May, El Kalaa, hosts a
plots, heavy silver bangles rose festival and gathering
clinking on their wrists. of the tribes which attracts
Others cluster around the visitors from around the
communal well to fill world.
amphoras. Tinerhir and the Co-operatives
Todra Gorges remain a specialized in the
popular departure point for distillation of rose water
four-wheel drive vehicles to line the road on the way
set forth on unpaved "pistes" out of town. Most are run
(dirt roads) leading into the by women who band
heart of the Atlas together to manufacture
Mountains. and market their products.
We continued One member of El Kalaa’s
southward to Boumalne du Co-operative Agricole
Dadès. Once a rather Touterroir, clad in colorful
downtrodden kasbah kaftan and headdress,
clinging to a boulder-strewn hillside, Boumalne has proudly showed off the factory’s modern distilling
morphed into a thriving commercial center thanks to apparatus and the drying oven lined with trays of rose
its spectacular location overlooking the oasis. petals. The gift shop was crowded with Japanese and
Dwellings new and old reflect the colors of the Italian travelers, who, like me, stocked up on rose-
surrounding landscape, standing like paper cut-outs scented creams, lotions, and balms. As we drove away,
against the green swath of the Dadès Valley. My hotel a group of young men pushed small leis fashioned
balcony, once again at a Xaluca hotel, offered an from fresh roses through the open windows:
unobstructed view of the luxuriant palm grove. That “Les roses! Vingt dirhams!” (about USD2.50) they
night, a slender crescent of moon hung above the called out as we inched our way along..
green sentinels like a comma in the universe. The Ouarzazate, at the southern end of the Kasbah
muezzin's (Muslim prayer-leader) early morning call
to prayer was the only sound to shatter the silence. trail, was once a stronghold of the French Foreign
Legion. No trace of a fort survives. Instead, you can
On set days, the hustle and bustle of a weekly get a glimpse of life inside a kasbah at the restored
souk creates a traffic jam along the kasbah trail, as it Kasbah of Taourirt, in the heart of town. Film buffs
does in El Kalaa des Mgouna. Desert souks possess an will recognize Taourirt as a location for the Sheltering
aura all their own. Tribesmen from the surrounding Sky, inspired by Paul Bowles’s book of the same name.
plains gather to trade in dates, dust, and dromedaries. A few kilometers away, more sun-baked visitors
As a teenager, I loved to mingle with the women in mount peaceful assaults against the imposing Kasbah
elaborate headdresses decorated in silver amulets, to of Tifoultoute.
listen to them haggle over the price of an eggplant or The derelict Kasbah offers commanding views of
a live chicken. I still do. As always, clusters of men wait

180 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2019