Ouarzazate To Agdz

We travelled west along the Vallée Du Dades, with the Atlas Mountains on our right and the Jbel Sarhro range on our left.  The thermometer outside was registering 38° although we were more than 4000 ft above sea level.

We stopped for lunch at Ouarzazate (pronounced Wazzerzat) before going on to Agdz (pronounced Aggerdez).  The scenery became bare, rugged and dusty with just the occasional acacia tree.

We gave a lift to a young Berber whose van had broken down.  His English was quite good and he told us his family lived in the Sahara and they kept 75 camels at Zagora and carried spices to and from Mali (Tony said afterwards he was having me on).  Anyway, he helped with our problem of how to pronounce their unpronounceable place names.  We declined his typical Berber invitation to take tea with his family as we were tired after our long drive.

Our campsite turned out to be very basic, only one pedestal toilet with a working flush – but we were grateful for the functioning shower, the tepid water needed no heating at it was now 41° outside.

Agdz was a lively town with plenty of student type tourist accommodation for visitors travelling through the Vallée Du Drāa to the Sahara.

The heat got to us eventually.  We were cool enough driving along but, as soon as we pulled into the roadside for a rest and a cuppa, the heat in the camper soared.  It was then 43° outside and there was precious little shade – so we had to keep on driving.  Being Ramadan there were fewer roadside restaurants open and it was difficult to find suitable pit stops for lunch.  We had planned to go south to Sidi Ifni but with a speedy change of plan we headed west towards the Atlantic coast and didn’t stop until we reached Agadir, where he temperature was a chilly 27°.