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.

This day we spent in Fez (or the Moroccan spelling, Fes).

T_24_0368 T_24_0362 This is a view of the city from one of the surrounding hills.

We then entered Fes and explored the medina.

Here follows a selection of photos from within the labyrinth of this medina.

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T_24_0435Dying pants

T_24_0436 For me, the highlight of the medina was the visit to the tanneries Chouwara.

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T_24_0376 In these vats, leather is dyed and then hung to dry.

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T_24_0388 T_24_0416 T_24_0421 And, to be expected, there was a shop selling leather goods, from belts (I bought one) to purses (Veda bought one) to ottoman covers and jackets and slippers, and various other items.

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These are the spectacular gates to the royal palace in Fez.

T_24_0477Royal Palace gateway For more photos from our Morocco journey, go to the "Galleries" on my web site and click on "Recent Work."

This gallery will be updated infrequently.

T_24_0292 On this day we departed Chefchaouen on the long drive to Fez.

T_24_0291 This is the Spanish Mosque, in the mountain above Chefchaouen.

T_24_0294 This is the bus in which we travelled on our Morocco tour.

It was outfitted with air conditioning and on-board wi-fi.

T_24_0299 The landscape south of Chefchaouen was very lush and green.

T_24_0314 These agricultural workers were harvesting onions.

T_24_0317 T_24_0308 As we drove south, the landscape became flatter and more arid. T_24_0323 Our first major stop was at the Roman ruins of Volubilis.

This site, north of Meknes, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

T_24_0333 T_24_0334 T_24_0342 Our guide, Hamid, hamming it up.

We later visited a winery, Domaine de la Zouina,  for lunch and a wine tasting.

T_24_0352 Leaving with wines for our journey and a complimentary bottle of olive oil, we carried on to Fez.