The morning took us back down the Dades gorge to Boumalne and then east on the main road across the arid desert plain - just as hot as yesterday.
After an hour or so we reached Tinghir from where we would take the local road north into the Todra gorge and continue uo into the mountains.
The towns here always seem to have a good number of people just sitting around, but are otherwise pretty well ordered and friendly places. Once onto the local road we saw the usual collection of donkeys ferrying various items to and fro, with that look of glum resignation they seem to have mastered.
As we entered the gorge proper, the rock faces became near vertical - never seen anyone climbing, but I wiuld imagine its pretty good, if a little warm.
As the gorge reached its narrowest point, mostnof thentraffic stopped and there were a collection of souvenir stalls - this was the turn around point for most tourists.
We however pressed on through the narrow cleft in the rocks
and onto the road that continued down the gorge beyond, which progressively widened as the road began to climb with a satisfying seriesvof twists and turns.
On route I saw this unusual building, which was completely different to anything else seen so far both in design & colour. It seemed unnoccupied and was nowhere near anythimg else, so not sure what it was.
Another hour further on and we had risen to over 2600m - the temperature had dropped noticably and the landscape had become more bleak & forboding.
The highest point of the pass registered as 2669m on my sat nav and was very windy.
The road continued at this height for quite a way, there were some very hardy tribesmen & goats moving around. I also saw mule trains innthe distance being guided by heavily clad berbers.
Periodically we would pass through a small village, the condition of the road would always be worse within the village than before or after - demarkation of funding I assume.
The villages seemd to always have a mix of old once beautiful ruins, modern box houses and a large variety of part finished buildings. There was hardly ever any actual building activity going on, it was as if time had been suspended in that regard.
A common characteristic, as I have found in villages worldwide, was the friendliness of the people - especially the kids who love to run out and wave, or sometimes scarily try to touch you as you ride past.
The wind that had been strongly knocking us about and whipping up dust finally brought some rain - the first proper rain I have experienced in Morocco - it actually became quite cool for a while.
Then by mid afternoon we had reached Imilchil, a small mountain town made famous for hosting the 'Marriage Moussem' each September. This is a festival where up to 30000 berbers gather to trade and also where multiple marriage ceremonies are carried out.
It is a pleasant little town and our lodging for the night a very basic but comfortable & clean pension.
It was quite cool this evening as we are still at around 2500m.
Tomorrow we continue north thorugh the mountain range before descending and heading towards Meknes.
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