through the middle atlas

In the morning we stopped at a supermarket to gather lunch material for a picnic. The supermarket was modern with plentiful food. Our last stop to get booz before the no alchool zone. I got an enormous round bread, some laughing cow cheese and a packet of turkey and a box of orange juice. My turkey meat was amazingly delicious. Our picnic was in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road, near a small stream. I stepped on some droppings. doh!
A whole day of driving through the middle atlas, not very high or interesting. Made a brief stop at Timadite, a very Swizz like ski resort town, unlike any other in Morocco. There's a statue of a mountain lion (only partly carved) because all the mountain lions were gone. We arrived at the desert settlement of Erfoud, a new setttlement, before supper. The hotel Salam had small rooms but a wonderful pool in the middle of the hotel, surrounded by the rooms. The dinner buffet was not great but at least it offered variety. Here we had to decide what optional activities we wanted for the next day. I wasnt planning on camping in the Sahara because nothing can top the 1000 Nights at Wahiba Sands and I had wanted a shower. But Aziz said we would return to the hotel at Merzouga for showers as we would still have our own rooms and would even leave our luggage there. So I signed up for the Berber camp and the 4x4. They played very loud Moroccan music at night at the hotel so I resorted to read AngelFall which I've started at CDG and was beginning to enjoy it very much.


See Atlas Mountains pictures: