Skoura, through the Dades Valley and the Sahara Desert to Merzouga

We woke this morning to rain ... in a country that is in a six year drought and has 350 sunny days a year. Admittedly it wasn't enough to be of any use.

The Highway of 1000 Kasbahs was our route today and true to name there were an amazing number of big fortified houses, or palaces, to be seen in both green valleys and stony, dry desert.

All day we have been travelling in the Sahara Desert (pronounced Sa-ha-ra), firstly in the Sahara Reg which is covered in rocks then in the Sahara Erg which is sand dunes.

In the middle of no-where were roses.  The roses are cultivated for their essential oils which are used in creams, lotions and perfumes.  A festival of roses is held in May at M'Gouna where I saw old posters, the distilling room and lots of products.

Along the road out of town students were selling hearts of roses. Driss bought one for us to smell the roses and it now hangs in the bus.

Dade's Panorama was incredible, the vast size of the view, the colours, the amazing effect that the seasonal river has on the wadi ( a river valley that is watered by heavy seasonal rain) ... and then there were the scarf sellers. Very persistent, but they did add more colour to the view.

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Kelly spotted snow on the distant ranges and later we could all see it..

Next stop was Dade's Gorge and it was bitterly cold. A short walk gave us another spectacular view. There are several places that were restaurants but after a huge rock fell the government decreed that they had to close those restaurants.

Erfoud is in the Tafilalet region of the Sahara and is noted for its high quality dates. Driss bought a big box of the best fresh dates, the medjool, and we all enjoyed them very much.

Not long after, we got our first glimpse of the sand dunes. How exciting!

Our spectacular accommodation is the Kasbah Tombouctou at Merzouga. This certainly is 'several structures behind a defensive wall', but oh, so glamourous.

Our bedroom with a shower room shaped like an ammonite. The photo doesn't do it justice.

And just outside our room, sand dunes, camels, dune buggies and possibly Lawrence of Arabia!

After a great meal, it is time for a good night's sleep. No new passengers in the back of the bus but some are still feeling pretty ordinary.