A lunch stop somewhere along the road where ex-Marine and I snarfed down an omelette berbere – omelet with vegetables in it. Very tasty and the first semi-real meal we’d had in days. Today’s road trip continued along an ancient route along the southern slopes of the Atlas, a traditionally Berber area. No one had to point that out since women no longer walked down the street dressed in black from head to toe. They were still wearing black jebellas but decorated with sequins and embroidery.

It was very windy with sand blowing in sheets across the desert and small whirlwinds (“dust devils”) sighted every now and then. A major attention-grabber was the first road kill of the trip. A dead camel on the side of the road with a policeman directing traffic. I bet hitting a camel could do serious damage to both the car and driver. Yep…the he (or she) camel was definitely dead with the head lolling over to one side. The camel should have been more careful crossing the road and I’m not kidding about that. During the next 1-1/2 hours, we saw quite a few camels crossing the road while others stood nonchalantly in the middle or to the side, just daring you to hit them…View image.

The only other semi-interesting road sights were trucks loaded with dried date palm leaves, used as fences to keep the desert from encroaching and Bedouin-style tourist tents. What could compare to a dead camel along the road? Oh joy, oh happiness…a sign pointing the direction to “Tinghir, 59km…View image. The group would stay in the Hotel Saghro…View image… above the unimposing main street of Tinehir rather than in the Todra Gorge itself. Aziz said Explore previously used a hotel in the gorge before but received too many complaints.

Tinghir would hold a market in two days and we’d have a chance to visit it. In the meantime, Tinghir would be our base from which to explore the towering cliffs of the Todra Gorge. Aziz is going to lead an optional one-hour walk in the Todra Gorge tomorrow but we’re not going to attempt it for two reasons. Didn’t bring hiking boots and I don’t take what was called a “moderate” hike boots up mountainous terrain without good ankle support.

Dinner is at 7:00 p.m. tonight. All I’m asking for is “decent” since I didn’t come with high expectations. I’m also prepared to be bombarded with comments that I don’t know what I’m talking about. My opinion was that all the Moroccan food we tasted was underwhelming. If you asked the rest of the group, many would have disagreed and said the food has been very good or to use a British common term used to describe food, “lovely.” However, a few group members have had minor tummy troubles and Aziz made another point of mentioning not to eat any salads in the South of Morocco.

Double rats, another disappointment. A set 3-course menu. We chose omelet for the starter, “lemon chicken” for entree, and creme caramel for dessert, 80 Dirhams. The “lemon chicken” turned out to be a chicken tagine. If you’ve never eaten a lemon chicken before, think boiled chicken, boiled potatoes and a few boiled vegetables. Tasty is stretching it a bit and remind me to ask from now on whether or not something is a tagine. Di ordered the kebap dish which was small meatballs with a fried egg on top. Her opinion? It wasn’t very good. There is always breakfast tomorrow to be hopeful about…