It is raining slightly, but there is a break, so we hurry to go see the beautiful bronze doors of the palace.
Then we go into the medina, through some very narrow and dark alleys, ending up in the grocery section.
Someone said these are Irish strawberries. I do not know if that is true. But the fruit below are pomegranates which we are served quite often for dessert, sometimes just the seeds and sometimes the fruit is quartered and you miss pick out the seeds.
A cart of sheepskins goes by. This is the day after the Feast Day when the sheep were slaughtered. We see a pile of sheepskins by the street.
A typical building has five elements: marble floors, carved cedar ceilings, carved plaster, Arabic writing and tile.
On the distant hillside we see hundreds of satellite dishes.
Lunch is served in a gorgeous restaurant, previously a private home.
After lunch we some of us visit the ceramics shop, others return to the medina and some go to the hotel.
Back at the hotel we have a wrap up session. Then some of us gather in the bar for camaraderie before going to dinner.
A sandstorm seriously affects the visibility as we approach Erfoud. We have lunch here after visiting a fossil shop, very interesting. We bought a plate with a shell imbedded to serve seafood hors d'oeuvres. There were beautiful fountains, coffee tables, lavatories, etc. On to Rizzani where we buy scarves to wear on the camel ride. This was an especially busy market as tomorrow is Feast Day, also a very primitive market. It used to be a caravan stop.
Fossil lavatories in our bathroom...we had a beautiful jacuzzi tub, but it did not work. The shower was very good, though.
We had a few minutes in our room as we waited for our luggage. Lo and behold, wifi was available and then we got the email from Caroline that our very close friend for 51 years had passed away. We get our scarves from our luggage and in tears go to the lobby to join the rest. Even though his death was not unexpected, we are extremely sad and do not know if we can continue with the ride.......but we do. The Berber who put my scarf on may have thought my tears were for my fear of the camel ride, but he did not ask as I cannot speak Berber. Our leader hugged me and told me that I did not have to ride a camel, and I said that I did, my children were counting on me....and I wanted to also. I am glad I did. We had not gotten to ride camels in Egypt, even though we thought we would, so we were counting on doing it in Morocco. It was actually easier than riding a horse, although no stirrups. Easier mounting as the camel kneels for you to get on. Then you lean back and hold on tight as the camel gets up. You ride on a saddle on carpets or cloths. I clutched the horn a little too tight. Mohammed kept saying to relax my hold!
The camels are waiting and one camel driver called to us. It was Mohammed and he was terrific, so caring and protective of us.
We are ready to go with Mohammed.
Mohammed takes my camera and photographs the group.
Here we are en route to the sand dunes!
We get off and climb up a tall sand dune to view the sunset. We are 35 miles from the Algerian border (which is closed to Morocco). Later we remount the camels and ride back to the Kasbah. Then we take the 4 x 4s to the tent for our dinner, which was delicious, one of the best we had. The 4x4 ride was almost as exciting as the camel ride. We were in car número uno ( with a Spanish speaking driver who loved being número uno)! Mr. Personality!
The food was one of the best meals we had. Always a first course they called salad, usually cold cooked vegetables, often green and red Bell peppers, marinated, always olives, very tasty!
Tagine, they lift the lid and then the meat course, excellent! Fruit for dessert.
Back to the Kasbah on the 4x4s, and a good night's sleep before heading to Fez the next day...our last stop on the tour.
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