Riad Agraw Tinerhir

... mint tea and snacks and we chatted to them through Abdul's interpretations. After admiring their carpets, the brother pulled out lots more and laid them on the ground in front of us. Sandra and Sharon each bought one and Mike was able to get the price down for them. By the time we finished it was dark and we started walking back through the village. One of Abdul's friends gave us a lift back to the hotel where we had dinner and straight to bed.

... at the same time. needless to say i was impressed. Our camel trek lasted just over an hour and i was quite glad to be getting down by the time we reached the traditional berber camp. As were most of the girls. The ride hadnt been the most pleasant, as the wind had picked up and we were pretty much all covered in sand. I had to hastily wrap my scarf around my face and head and put a pair of sunnies on to stop the sand getting into my eyes and mouth. I looked like a traditional ...

... off to visit a local family she had befriended so I was left in much longed for peace. I walked down the hill into the centre of Tinerhir, which is a pretty unremarkable small town set in the Atlas Mountains. The centre is modern and the villages around the two oases are mainly made from mud by the owners themselves. Apart from the lush oases, the only redeeming feature is it's close proximity to Todra Gorge. The market was setting up so I browsed ...

Aching from our camel ride we left the desert behind and drove to Tinerhir, a town near to the entrance of Todra Gorge. We arrived at dusk and attempted to find a campsite at the other side of the gorge, but as we drove along we discovered the ...

... into the Sahara Desert to the south. Feeling inspired I began to sing (as I am inclined to do in isolated spots when no one can hear me). "The hills are alive with the sound of music,.....................blah, blah, blah......" After napping on the peak at what felt like the top of the world for a while and eating my apples and peanut butter sandwich, I started on my way down. It wasn't long before I came across a heard of black ...

Once through Ziz Gorge and over a few spectacularly barren passes we entered the true desert environment and the land of the casbahs, spectacular fortified communal dwellings that I like to call early Berber condominiums. And not only does the natural landscape in this part of the world resemble that of the American Southwest, but ...

... mint tea, played with the cutest 2-yr old boy & photographed his 7-yr old sister. She carries her beauty in her eyes - like all Berber people. These people make up 60% of Morocco's population & were treated as the minority. Their language is only now allowed to be used in schools to teach the subjects. A lot of these people are uneducated because they did not want to learn Arabic ...

... Although the major roads are paved in this area, they are very narrow and it can be very frightening to meet a large truck driven by someone who doesn't want to move one tire on to the shoulder! Drivers here straddle the centre line; when they meet another vehicle pull over just far enough to avoid sideswiping each other. Since I've been sitting mainly near the front of the van I've been trying not to pay too much attention - we haven't had a collision yet!

... d'accord pour que la langue berbère soit enseignée dans les écoles, alors que son père, Hassan II n'autorisait que l'arabe. Finalement, personne n'achète de tapis car ce sont ceux qui sont chez lui qui sont à vendre. Ils sont plutôt sales. On dit au-revoir à tout le monde et on repart. On passe par les gorges du Dadès. C'est superbe. Très sec au début et plus on avance, plus c'est vert. Au départ, rien dans l'oued sec et puis, quelques ...

Today was supposed to have been my first wash day, but the wind that is threatening to blow the tents down makes that a waste of time, since it is so dusty here. We are camped right beside a small village. It was amazing to walk through the village to our camp site; very narrow paths between mud houses made it seem like another century. We went to a man's house for mint tea in the afternoon and saw just how much sugar is put into that stuff - wow.