Day 7: Sunrise to Fes.

6.30am Time to rise from our camp beds if we want to see the sun rise at 7.30am.

Blessed by a beautiful sunrise.

Breakfast  

Driver due at 8.10 but apparently sharing with French Family who had been told 8.30am. 

Time to take a few photos 

We patiently waited before leaving on a fun roller coaster ride over the sand dunes in an old 7 seater Toyota Landcruiser. 

9am We arrived at Aubergine Trans Sahare where we had left our group yesterday. We were met our Driver who guided us into an 6 seater Taxi. We picked up 2 other passengers from Austria on the outskirts of town.

10am Short break for coffee, having picked up a Mexican couple just outside Mezouga and stopped at ATM. Slightly underbudgeted for tipping .

Cute camel family.

little glass container for sand or spice bought local souvenir thinking i may use it for 

Ras el Hanout

12pm Photo time as we leave the Sahara and travel into the Atlas 

1.55pm lunchtime 

Excellent Salads Grilled Meat - Sheep chops and meatballs above local  butchers shop but used extensively by tour groups 

2.55pm Back on the Road, only 3hrs from Fez.

4pm  short break to feed the Berber monkeys

They liked my trousers 

4.10pm ad Hoc stop for coffee at a road side vendor which was excellent for 6MAD.

5.30pm First drop off, the Mexican couple, followed by the Austrians by the Blue gate and lastly us. A local met us at the taxi with his barrow for our luggage. The area was undergoing major development. Fortunately the barrow man knew where the Riad was but this did not stop another local following us, offering to be our guide and take us to a restaurant, we told him we were not interested but it fell on deaf ears. 

The Riad was very welcoming, with tea and biscuits.Our bags were taken to our beautiful 2nd floor room 

An hour later we decided to venture out and find a bite to eat. Low & behold the local was on the corner still wanting to be our guide and still would not listen when we said we just wanted to explore on our own.

Eventually we got the message across as we wandered into the medina maze. Confident that we could eventually  find our way home we wandered on, hoping to find a bar to get a drink and bite to eat. We were plagued by men wanting to be our guide, my first impression of Fez was not good. My confidence was in Google Maps but not daring to look we strolled on. 

8pm Relieved to find somewhere to eat where we hopefully would not be hassled.Fondouk Bazaar. A Meze menu looked appealing and reasonable priced at 90MAD for 3 dishes.

We choose 6 dishes that were delicious. Probably a little  much but 3 would have been too little. The Ginger lemonade was amazingly refreshing, highly recommended.

Finding our way back to the Hotel was an easy 10 minute walk. 

The view from the Riad roof brought where we had walked into prospective.