Today we were heading from Ouarzazate to Marrakech and stopped to see the ksar (fortress and neighborhood surrounding it) of Ait Benhaddou. To reach the ksar, you had to either cross the river on two long sections of stones (with bags of rocks on them) or walk a ways to a pedestrian bridge. We took the stones, which looked easy but turned out to be quite challenging. Rostom, our driver, took my camera and purse and then helped me from stone to stone. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t spaced far apart (in the middle of rapids), but for a short person, it was quite a stretch. We had just made it across the second section of rocks when we heard a big splash: Tim had slipped on a rock and fallen in the river, which wasn’t deep, but certainly was deeper than it looked. He got up immediately, but had twisted his foot and couldn’t make it the rest of the way across. Two policemen came running and helped him get to the shore. We had to climb through the Kasbah to get to the pedestrian bridge, to get back to the car. It was painful, but we made it and got to Marrakech, over the High Atlas Mountains (so a long and winding drive). Along the way we stopped and asked a restaurant for ice, but all they had to give us was frozen beef brochettes, which we gladly accepted, in the hope of reducing the swelling.
Our riad (pension) in Marrakech called a doctor, and turns out a bone was fractured in his foot and he will have to be on crutches for a month. Needless to say, he won’t be able to go on our guided tour of Marrakech tomorrow, but hopefully he won’t be in too much pain for the last five days of our trip. Just Morocco isn't the best place to be on crutches...
This is minor compared to what happened to Tim, but my Sony RX-1, which he was using, fell in the water and is now dead. All my batteries (which I am unable to replace) were in the camera bag he was carrying as well, along with a lot of compact flash and SD cards; I don’t yet know how they fared. His passport was soaked but survived, as did his cell phones and wallet. His hat went down the river, but a little boy retrieved it for us. What a day.
Posted earlier today, sand dunes under the Sahara sun:
