Draa River valley to Zagora

Because you can never talk too much about food, here's last nights meal at Chez Pierre. I think I had managed to avoid zucchini in any form my whole life and now I've had it two nights in a row as soup. Then the little pizza showed up again and I'm thinking there may be no variety in Morocco. But then the waiter puts some duck with wine sauce in front of me. Long trip to get my first taste of duck. It was served with potato and something that looked like green beans. All was good and then what amounted to hot apple pie was served for desert which was off the charts good. Gaining weight.

Chez Pierre is at some elevation and I got my first taste of the desert cooling off at night to the point of being cold. Very much like Vegas in the winter. They have no heating system. During dinner they had a stove with a wood fire going, but me and Spanish couple and French family all had on our coats. My room was very cold, but the bed had the two heaviest blankets on it that I have ever seen. They may have really been rugs. Was not cold all night.

I'm now 2.5 out of three on the showers. This one made up for its lack of water pressure by having terry cloth bedroom slippers. Couldn't resist trying them on. Took a selfie of my feet. Let me know if you want a copy when I get back.

Saw a lady this morning bent over at the back using a small straw broom to sweep the five foot wide space of dirt between her house and the road. Pride comes in many forms.

RV's are on the road here. Yahja says that Europeans bring them over the Mediterranean on a boat or ferry to get out of the winter weather. Have seen dozens each day.

Stopped today at a rose oil cooperative. Never heard of rose oil, but this one area makes a lot of it. Families grow roses and combine the blooms and make oil very much like moonshine is made. They press the pedals to get liquid out. Then steam the liquid and cool it with water running through coils just like a still. The oil is then used to make hand and face cream, soap, etc.

Each day we've been thru a few police check points. There are two officers standing beside the road with a small police car. They are dressed very spiffy with kind of a military police look They put a little sign about 50 yds up the road from them and you must stop and wait for one of them to wave you up. Every time they have just waved us on thru. So when we went thru the first one today, I asked Yahja if they waved us thru because they could see that this was a tourist car and that they'd been told not to hassle tourists. He said that was true but that he had been stopped with people like me before. So the obvious follow up question was do they ever demand bribes to go thru. He laughed and said of course. They will pick out a few vehicles each day and find a few things wrong. Some they will take a bribe to overlook and share the money with their boss. then they will write a ticket for the others. As you would expect, about an hour later we come to one and they stop us. They ask Yahja who I am and he says a tourist. The officer then sticks his hand thru the window to shake my hand and asks where I'm from. I say I'm an American. He smiles big and says welcome to our beautiful country. I say it is very beautiful. He wishes me a grat visit and waves us on. I exhale.

Yahja says there are no wild camels. All camels are owned by someone.

Saw a construction worker stop his work today and unroll his prayer blanket and take off his shoes. Then get on his knees and rock up and down praying for a few minutes. Really hard to get used to seeing in the workplace.

We got to Zagora about 4 pm today and Yahja brought me to Villa Zagora where I'm the only person spending tonight. This is the second night that Yahja has spent at a friends house. Last night he stayed at the hotel, but did not get to eat meals. I had some time to kill before dark so decided to walk back to town to see what I could see. Figured it was safe as I've seen no anti American sentiment. And it was safe, but everywhere I've been there's been hassling by people who want to sell you something or begging by children. Gets old after a while. On the way back I saw a guy driving a motor scooter with a sheep between his knees. He was either dead or a very well behaved pet sheep.

Dinner tonight was amazing since I am the only one that was being served. Two guys run the place. One speaks some English and brought out each course and the other speaks french and cleared my plates. Two women came to work to do the cooking. First was bread and the now ever present zucchini soup. Then I'm told that next will come couscous. Now couscous is a food I've heard of but never figured out what it was. And for some reason it didn't sound appetizing to me. So while I'm waiting, I quickly wikipedia couscous and find out its steam rice with vegetables and some sort of meat. Across the room is the kitchen where the women are singing loudly and having a ball with what sounds like very high pitched Arabic yodeling. The couscous comes and it is a big bowl of steamed rice with potato and opinion on top with a skewer of beef and one of chicken. I'm stuffed as I write this and couldnt finish the fruit salad that came for desert. I told the English speaker to tell the women that this was the best couscous that I had ever had and that I would be honored if they would come out of the kitchen and sing for me. My ears are still ringing.

Tomorrow we head for the real Sahara desert. First we will go by the Erg Chigaga dunes. Then a little further and the road will end. Yahja will then use his local knowledge to drive about 30 miles thru the dunes to the desert camp where I will stay for two nights. We will then drive about 50 miles out the other side and back to the roads on Sunday. So no email for a couple of days.

Will be about 20 miles from Algeria when at the camp. Was hoping to get another stamp for my passport but Yahja says there is no border crossing for hundreds of miles. Just desert, hashish smugglers and illegal aliens from the sub continent trying to get to Europe.

The picture of me riding a camel will go to the highest bidder. Should be special. Rider up