Where You Would Least Expect!

Take the western road alongside the wadi in Ksar Sghrir until you come to a community of houses at the southern end of the town. At the junction marked by a row of rubbish bins, turn left. Left at the t-junction, then first right down a narrow dirt covered track until you come to this open space.

I agree, it does not look salubrious. But tucked into the corner of an apartment building overlooking this space you will find Ksar Sghrir's first hammam and beauty salon (see extra photo).

It was cold, wet and miserable. Len and I had no plans for the day after our outing to Rabat, not even a trip to Tangier. But I found the hammam and had a wonderful bath.

A hammam is the Moroccan equivalent of a Turkish bath, which in turn, I am sure, is modelled on the Roman baths of antiquity. You take your clothes off in an ante room and then, armed with two buckets, a water pourer, a scouring glove, soap and shampoo, you venture into the three steam rooms shaped like half domes. They put me in the first steam room as they probably thought the inner ones would be too hot for me. A lady in the changing room indicated that I could strip down to  my panties. You would never, ever get that degree of nudity in the Persian Gulf.

Three ladies had to help me up off the floor as I was finishing, and then the lady on the door brought me a plastic chair to sit on. I felt shame faced having to ask for help. The weakness in my legs does not bode well for the future.

Ladies' hours are from 10 am to 5 pm. Gents can use the hammam between 5 am to 9 am, and then from 6 pm to midnight. 

I felt wonderfully warmed and refreshed as I drove back to the villa, but became increasingly colder. Moroccan houses don't seem to have any heating. Len put the oven on and sat in front of it. I went to bed.

In the evening, we had hoped to eat up the road at the fish restaurant at Diki, but it was closed for business other than serving coffee. Luckily, a restaurant was open on the other side of the road half a kilometre away which served us a wonderfully hot and fragrant tagine of lamb and prunes. That helped to cheer us up. 

We returned home and went to bed. Len never got to the hammam. He didn't want to drive down the tracks in the dark to park outside. I'm sure he would have been alright.