Le Meridien Berbere Palace Ouarzazate

Just quick entry to set the map pin. Suffice I lucked out and nabbed a guide in Merzouga who just happened to be headed to Marrakech to pick up 3 Spanish clients to guide them on a 10 day tour of Morocco.

Thus, instead of struggling w/ mind-boggling taxi negotiations to navigate to Quarzazate (about 8 hrs. from Merzouga), I verily whizzed south across ...

... the family and get the tents up whilst Ahmed produces that Lamb Casserole with soup.
The goats live pretty much by daylight so it's an early night before the 5.30 dawn chorus.
The next 6 days then follow the pattern of early starts and trekking up to 6 hours and a lazy afternoon waiting for the goats to catch up. We climb to 3200 metres & experience the temperature swings at that height as well as some residual winter snow.
Overnight ...

... with our guide who wants to charge double for this unwanted service. In another valley there are roses growing. They make rose water from the roses which are grown around the edge of other crops. There are lots of old kasbahs in the area, many in ruins and we wander through one of them. Its dark and cool inside as the clay walls are very thick and the windows small.

... brown mud rushing over the road. There were cars parked on either side but it was impassable. We got out to survey the scene and take pictures. We started asking people how long they thought it would take to clear the road. The responses were varried but always with an in'sh'Allah (God willing) at the end. "Four hours, in'sh'Allah!" they said. "Maybe six, in'sh'Allah, or tomorrow in'sha'Allah!" This of course came as ...

Breakfast early then left at 8:30am. Back out through Todra Gorge to the town of Tinehir (where the hammam was). First stop was a handicapped association that intrepid supports where the men and women make pottery, candles, jewellery etc. I bought 2 lovely scented candles and a bangle (had to fight off Aussie Mike as we both liked the same one). Next stop some local markets where we bought bananas and peas (11dhs a kilo) and 2 more bangles ...

... High Atlas and to Ouarzazate. Snow is getting closer and closer, vegetation vanishes, colors of the ground keeps on changing and changing and the road gets more and more winding and having quite steep valleys below. The road is lined with people offering fake gems, but there are some very good places to shop some berber products and fossils as well (some of them really cheap). Since we want to have a good karma we take some hitchhikers, which try to get home and had ...

... was a real treat...even though we were sipping tea tooooo hot to drink in air too hot to breathe! The view in every direction is superb and we keep pinching ourselves that we are really here looking at this. Tomorrow we have another long day of travelling in a land rover through the Dades Gorge to Merzouga where we get to ride camels out to the dunes....off to another adventure..ensha'llah (if God wills)....Bessalama (goodbye)

... probably one of the most intense situations we had encountered. Nat started talking to the one guy and the other guys starting talking to some other guys, we had them in a sort of bidding war, I realized that the guy the others were talking too, was the guy that tried to rip us off at the hotel so they left him and came to the guy nat was talking too. The locals flagged down a passing cab and we all packed our bags in the trunk. The cabbie was an innocent ...

High Atlas - mountain pass - fantastic scenery. Greenery & palm trees on Marrakech side, as we climbed higher it became more barren & snow-capped, with beautiful red-brown rock. Top of the pass - grey stoney ground On the other side - real desert landscape, rocky, bright green areas only near the river Stayed night in Ouarzazate