Dades

South of Ouarzazate is the Finnt Oasis. The route took us through what looked like it was going to be a large industrial estate. The roads are laid. Street lamps are in place along with services and electricity. But that is all. There are no actual buildings. The site is massive. Several kilometres square. All prepared for building but looking now as if it had been deserted. We have seen several sites like this in Morocco and they are a bit of a mystery.

Leaving the wide roads of partially built estate, we took to a dirt track across a barren rocky area before descending into a narrow valley. Here we found the oasis. Very green and wet and generally picture book oasis like. The dog played in the water and we all had a picnic on a rock.

A couple of days later we were at the Dades Gorge. This is one of two dramatic clefts on the southern side of the High Atlas. The road is thin but passable and spectacular. Eventually, a few kilometres past the little village of Tilmi, we reached the start of a steep mountain section. This was too narrow for Baloo to manage safely. Evening was falling so we camped in a random field and later two men and a donkey wandered past in the darkness. Next day the two cars went over the mountains leaving us to back track our way down the gorge.