Two days without internet and camping in the desert has been a real break, although the first Moroccan coffee on driving out today was very welcomed.

Erfoud is a hotspot location for fossils, and there was a truly amazing amount being worked at a local workshop. I was conflicted, while the tables and slabs being prepared for kitchen tops etc were amazing I do feel that some of those specimens should have been in museums displayed for all to see and to learn from. Late edit; I’ve been advised these fossils aren’t rare although the density is impressive.

Leaving Erfoud we visited a market in Merzouga, totally aimed at locals with very few tourists around. Chaotically busy in places, bicycles and mopeds everywhere, the freshest vegetables and fruit I’ve ever ever seen or smelled, sheep and goats for sale, a donkey parking lot.

In Merzouga, another beautiful mausoleum, and a casbah being restored by UNESCO. The casbah was pretty much a ruin a few years ago, it’s now slowly being re-inhabited and there’s even a primary school inside the casbah.

Then one of the highlights of our trip so far; a camel rise into the dunes and an overnight glamping stay amongst the dunes at the edge of the Sahara. Listening to our tour guide, camel guides and camp attendants playing their instruments and singing Berber music around the campfire just having fun; high point of the trip so far before a peaceful camel ride back in the morning after a sunrise dune walk.

Today was a drive to Tinghir, a town between the High and Ante Atlas Mountains, where the valley floor is a maze of tiny fields of vegetables and fruit, surrounded by date palms and olive trees. At this time of year the mountains should be snow covered and the rivers in the valleys flowing fast; the peaks are bare, the sun is hot and the river beds are dry. I do not know how this area will feed its people in the next years.

And that very welcome coffee.

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