AZROU (Day 4)

Breakfast at the hotel included entertainment by some musicians.

We joined up with some people we'd met earlier... Ed and Tina (from London) and Andy and Nina (from Scotland). We all piled into a large taxi that drove us to the city of Azrou, located in the Middle Atlas mountains. On the way we stopped at a large local market, selling everything from fresh mint to dried goat hides.

We checked into a hotel on the main square.

In the afternoon, we all set off on a long hike into the hills with a local guide, Hamid. It was much more of a run than a leisurely stroll as we negotiated loose gravel trails and climbed steep slopes. Finally at the top, things leveled out and we enjoyed cool pine, oak and cedar forests interspersed with open plains.

We visited briefly with semi-wild makak monkeys who lived free in the forests but would still take bread from your hand.

It then became a race against the sun to get back to the town before dark. We exited the mountains as the sun began to dip but we were still a couple miles from town. We wound our way around the last perilous cliff ledge just as the final shimmers of twilight faded. We probably walked almost 10 miles in total.

For dinner were were invited to Hamid's house. It took Hamid's wife three hours to properly prepare the couscous! We then all feasted from one enormous center dish of food, all the while making futile attempts to roll it into perfect balls like they did.

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