Let’s start the episode with the rising sun. In the last episode I promised to tell a little bit about the accommodation, where I took the night sky picture in the alley way.
This is it, a large kasbah located picturesquely on a small hill overlooking the valley. The entrance alone was spectacular, you have the choice to climb the stairs to the front door or, take a small road, spiralling upwards around the hill, before entering through a gate into a courtyard at the base of the wall. From there another set of small stairs gets you up and inside the kasbah itself, while the luggage is hoisted up by a small cargo crane.
One of the small alley ways, that make up the structure.
Inside the dining room. The kasbah was privately owned by a family who are maintaining the buildings and operate the guest house.
After a good breakfast, I continued my way northwards, leaving the Anti-Atlas behind and approaching the mighty Atlas. The only notable occurrence in the densely populated valley in between the two mountain ranges were herds of camel and sheep crossing the roads.
Crossing the Atlas on a small pass road. Clearly, Moroccans have a different approach to traffic safety.
This picture foreshadows the third central topic of my ride report. So far I’ve covered the sand and the night time photos…
Snow! The valleys on the northern side of the Atlas were covered in deep snow, and I had set my mind to camping in it. I could have easily continued to Marrakesh to find a cosy room there, but where is the adventure in that? So I turned off the main road to find a nice spot in one of the valleys.
But this search proved to be a bit more difficult than I imagined, and with the setting sun I decided to set up camp here, right next to the road. While setting up my tent I had to refuse a few invitations of passing Moroccans, who couldn’t let a stranger sleep in the snow.
The wintery night sky ends this episode, black and white if it weren’t for yellow, red and blue stars.
