31 March Tafraoute

What a day. An entirely different Moroccan experience. A million miles away from souks and seaside resorts. We took a southward road from Tafraoute higher into the mountains. The highest point we reached was 1668 metres as we climbed up and up one side of a canyon. It was spectacular. After about 40 kilometres the road divided and we took the right hand option and descended the either side into a canyon down to about 1200 metres. We drove along a winding road flanked on either side by massive palm trees. We passed some small villages and also some larger ones. In most cases the buildings were again grand, ornate and well maintained, often with irrigated orchards within the boundary walls.
When we reached the end of the canyon and the end of the palm trees we came across what appeared to be a good road which was not shown on our map, so we decided to explore. After continuing for some 20 kilometres and not really finding anything we turned round. On that road we did pass through a very large connurbation of similar large and well maintained houses. On the return trip a crowd of children were obviously finishing school and there must have been at least 40 of them, aged between about 8 and 12, so it is a thriving community. They were all very friendly and waved to us as we passed. We cannot fathom out what the occupations of these people can be.
We returned to the beginning point of our detour and decided to risk a loop road returning to Tafraoute on what we knew was classed as a 'piste' or track. It turned out to be very much of a track and stretched our Dacia Logan to it's limits as John gently eased it between and over rocks and small streams. I was relieved when after about 25 kilometres we were on a good surface again.
It's been a very good day. The scenery in Morocco is not disappointing. We saw gorges, canyons, spectacular rock formations. As the rocks were bare the structure was apparent and in some places the strata was absolutely vertical. We have another trip planned for tomorrow, this time in the opposite direction, to some mountain villages. We are enjoying Tafraoute and at the moment plan to stay here for another 2 nights.