On this morning we left Fez and headed in the direction of the Sahara Desert.

T_24_0480 Ilfrane was our first stop, a town in the Atlas Mountains.

It was quite different from other Moroccan towns as it was more reminiscent of an Alpine village.

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This is a stork's nest on the rooftop of a home near Ilfrane.

T_24_0489 A local villager attending to her chickens.

T_24_0508Barbary Macaque

We encountered these Barbary Macaques in the Middle Atlas Mountains.

Up here the weather was appreciably cooler, as you can see in the following photo.

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Later this day, we stopped at this nomad encampment at the side of the main highway.

T_24_0518Nomad encampment This group of "nomads" had set up a more permanent settlement.

T_24_0520Nomad encampment

Our leader, Hamid, pours tea for us in this nomad home.

Hamid had previously stopped and visited this man and his family.

The family had agreed to having tourists visit their home. This was a small way for the family to earn some money.

T_24_0522Nomad encampment

T_24_0526Nomad encampment

The main reason this family set up here was so that the children could go to school.

T_24_0530Nomad encampment This is the interior of the home, very neat and inviting, unlike the exterior.

T_24_0535 On the road once again, we stopped at this restaurant in Zaida for lunch.

T_24_0539 The butcher is preparing our lunch offerings, some of which you can see in the foreground.

T_24_0546 A village in this area with its mosque, always the tallest building.

We drove as far as Merzouga, at the edge of the Sahara Desert, to our hotel for the night.

T_24_0550 This was our room.

I apologize for the long period between blogs of our Morocco trip, but I've been planning our next adventure.

This will be in October to the Tuscany region of Italy.

Before that departure, I hope to have completed account of the rest of our time in Morocco.