Dec 4 – Imlil and Kasbah Tamadot

Had to take a few more shots of our Riad before we headed out today.

Today is about scenic beauty.  The destination, Imlil, is supposed to be beautiful but drive itself was pretty awesome.

We are driving up into the mountains to the small town of Imlil, in the high Atlas Mountains.  It is almost in the dead center of Morocco and about an hour south of Marrakech.  It is a jumping off point for hiking and we saw a number of serious hikers getting outfitted and ready for a hike.  If you don’t want to hike you can rent a donkey to take you up the trails.  

Although it looked like fun most of us headed out on foot for a short hike.  There wasn’t time for serious hiking but it was nice to be walking after so many hours in the bus.

Half way up a hill most of the group went on towards a village and ultimately found a series of small waterfalls.  

Tara and Mary split off with our guide Mohammed for a 20 minute hike to a waterfall. 

After 20 minutes of hiking Mary and Tara and Mohammed reached a fork in the path.  And Mohammed said that it was 20 minutes up to the waterfall (seems he meant that the first 20 minutes was to this junction and not to the actual falls (English as a second language plus Mohammed seems to have no sense of time).  Since we were supposed to be back into the village in another half hour it was obvious we didn’t have time to walk to the falls…so we headed down the hill.

We met up with Judy and Helen at a nice outdoor restaurant right on the cascades that flowed through the town.  Eventually most of the group met us there and we had lunch along the river.

Loved this sign.  I'm pretty sure the sign maker was referring the Harrod's, the expensive, upscale department store in London.

After walking around the town a bit we re-boarded the bus for a short ride down the hill to our next hotel, Kasbah Tamadot.  We had stopped here for a bio break on the way to Imlil and a couple of our group had opted to stay at the Kasbah instead of going on to Imlil.

The Kasbah Tamadot (a Berber name - the final "t" is pronounced) is by far the most luxurious and amazing place we have stayed in Morocco...where all of our hotels/Riads have been amazing.

The rundown kasbah was discovered by Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines) and his parents and they fell in love with it and the area. So they bought it and renovated it into a truly special oasis. Plus almost all of the staff are local people so the kasbah really helps the local economy.

They have two pools, the outdoor one with great views of the mountains and a lovely indoor pool. 

We have a very comfortable room that includes a sitting area.

Our room had a rooftop terrace so we had great views of the grounds and the mountains. 

They also had a spa and Mary was able to get in for a great (but too short) massage.  This is the ceiling in the spa.  The light fixture (we've seen a lot of this type in Morocco) makes a beautiful lacy light pattern on the ceiling.

And there were various small courtyards that were lovely, including one in which they had scattered a lot of rose petals.

That courtyard was particularly pretty lit up at night.

This was a major splurge but we were all in agreement that it was worth every penny (not that any of us had any idea how many pennies it cost since it was folded into the overall price of the trip).  We could spend a week here but alas, we are only here one night.