This is a temp post that we will update later. Road Scholar keeps us moving and we are struggling to write posts. For those who are following the journey and for us if David never transcribes his many pages of handwritten notes, here is mostly photos of the last couple of days in Morocco.

We arrive in Ouarzazate today and are staying in the IBIS chain hotel because the best hotel in town was taken over by the crew filming Gladiator 2. (Denzel Washington was here last week.). The town is know for its light so is a popular film site. Babel (with Brad Pitt) was filmed here and he made a sizable donation for education in the area.

Anyway the photos here go back a couple of days that are particularly picturesque.

Driving from Fez to Erfoud we stop to feed (and photograph) moneys, see a town with stork nests on rooftops and see the beginning of the largest oasis in Africa (that’s what we were told).

The next day we leave Efoud for our night of tent camping. Our first stop is a fossil display and shop which is astounding. In the region they seem to have limitless access to all kinds of fossils which can be purchased as specimens or cut into slabs for tables or carved into bowls. You can even buy a toilet or bidet that is full of fossils. (Which I think could only be appreciated by those who are looking down while they pee.). It was impressive.

We next visited a communal village (photos later). There are very specific kinds of towns. Some have shops, some only homes. After the village we went to a grade school. We were able to go to a pre-school classroom (4-5 year olds) where we learned about the secular education system that the government is promoting throughout the country. I could go on and on about what we learned but highlights to me was that they are learning both Arabic and French from this age and that all text books are used nation wide and in both languages. Most of the children we met probably speak Berber at home. So 3 languages from the start. There are 2 Canadian women in our group and they were asked to sign their national anthem. One woman was brave enough to take it on. She has a great voice and it was beautiful. Then we Americans were asked to sing ours and the remaining 18 of us did it jointly. Then the kids sang – shouted – their national anthem. Great gusto for God, the Nation and the King!!! Road Scholar makes a contribution to the library fund of the school in exchange for the lesson in Moroccan education.

Next stop – a mausoleum. Feels like a cloister.

Next item is a visit inside the Oasis. As walk into and through a small section to see gardens of onions, kale, mint, parsley, date palms, olive trees, fig trees and to see the irrigation system fed by underground aquifers. We also saw a spot where people come from the town/ksar to collect fresh water for home use.

I think we then got lunch before moving on to the town where we could get our camels. We had already been told to pack a small overnight bag for the camp night and had been taken to a liquor store the day before to purchase alcohol to take along.

We rode camels for about 30 minutes but then had to transfer to cars for the last bit to the tent camp. We walked on the dunes for sunset, had a tagine dinner and a musical performance and were told that breakfast would start at 6, a hike to view sunrise at 6:30 and in the 4-wheel drive vehicles at 7 for a full day drive to our current location.

Whew!!!!

The desert is so beautiful.

Tomorrow off to Marrakech!