On the road again! After a series of 2 night stays at each stop we now have 3 of moving every day. It becomes more of a challenge remembering where we and what we’re doing, thank goodness Saaid keeps us on track!

He gave us an option to stop at a fossil factory (?). This area is overflowing with fossils, kick a rock and it’s probably a fossil. The factory collects huge boulders, slices them open, and reveals all kinds of 300 million years old nautilus, squids, jellyfish and more. I’m fascinated by this oceanic archaeology and bought an ammonite shell.

Then, along the Road of 1000 Casbahs, we stopped to visit the old irrigation canal system. It’s a series of underground tunnels from the mountains 25k away. Built starting in the 11th C. it carried water until 50 years ago. Then it was still knee high but now aquifer too low and it’s dry. The little mounds every few meters is one: excavated dirt, and two: access holes to go down and clear out any blockages. In summer they now sleep here as being 10 meters down in the rock it’s cool.

Back in the bus and we’re driving along the northern edge of the Anti Atlas Mountains. The oldest of the 3 great mountain ranges it’s foothills are weathered, rounded, and dark with minerals. New mining explorations portend huge development in the future.

As mentioned above, we’re on the Road of 1000 Casbahs, or old citadel/fortress/village. Many of the old mud & straw buildings are abandoned. Either the occupants emigrated (many Amazigh Jews went to the new Israel or others moved for better work). Others didn’t want to deal with the constant upkeep of such construction and built brick or concrete homes.

We stopped for a mediocre lunch – the menus are always couscous, tagines, or kebabs. Then our afternoon excursion was a very pleasant 4-mile walk thru the Todra Valley – a 25km long parceled farmland created by the constantly flowing, spring-fed river.

Checked into our very nice hotel, rooms with balconies overlooking the lush river valley, then back in the bus one more time for our final excursion: the Todra Gorge.