Day 3 - in and around Zagora

After the long day yesterday, it was a relief to know that we were not moving to another place for tonight, and thus there was no need to get up for an early start. But this didn't stop some of us getting up before dawn to be driven in one of the 4x4s most of the way up Jebel Zagora, the local mountain, to see the dawn, and then to walk back to the town (about 2 miles) for breakfast! After that, there was a most interesting guided walk through the palmery and on to the old town - full of people, very few cars, lots of children, and a visit to a silversmith. There was a bit of free time in the afternoon, and then we drove out to the edge of the true desert for a camel ride. Camels are supposed to be desperately uncomfortable, though most of us found it quite OK for an hour - we had special saddles with a stout iron bar to hang on to if necessary. My camel was young and not at all keen on having a heavy load, so had a few fits of "air turbulance" when the iron bar turned out quite useful .

The first light of dawn - if you look hard!	Start of the walk back - the lights of Zagora
Relics of ancient fortifications	plus a very thorny acacia
The thorns	Palmery showing signs of the drought
Getting back to civilisation - and a convenient reminder that we are around 30. deg North	A camel park

The restaurant where we are to eat tonight	Camels with cattle egret picking at the ticks
Our hotel in Zagora	View from our bedroom
Colourful Berber scarves - the purple are dyed with indigo which doesn't run	Start of the walk round the palmery
Irrigation control	Man on donkey
Fencing from local materials	Plant guards
Goats and kids	Village scene
More plant guards	The old Town Hall - a favourite for wedding photos
Street in the old town	Minaret
Street under houses with a distant view of a courtyard	A collapsed house showing the method of construction
	Silversmith preparing sand moulds
and impressing them with a blank	Melting the silver
Pouring into the moulds (no safety equipment)	Breaking open the mould
The raw pieces ready for further working	Water pot storage racks (the pots have pointed bottoms)
The sliversmith's shop - an Aladdin's cave
Old wooden doors
Rugs and pots	The sliversmith's father - tickled pink by seeing this picture
Maureen demonstrating how the kohl containers and brushes work	The cats in Morocco are very well fed
Hibiscus in the garden of the old Koranic library	Arcade of shops
The elaborate doorway of the mausoleum of the Koranic Library's founder	and the window next to it, with Koranic inscriptions in the plasterwork
A well off one of the covered streets	Roof of a covered street with a house above
Visit to the pottery - good for stunning visual images
The potter sits underground so he can use all the floor space around him	Slicing a pot off the top of the lump of clay - in a time-honoured tradition
The hole without the potter
The kilns
	Roof tiles with raw glaze, as yet unfird
Finished bowls	Finished bowls showing the distinctive local green glaze
The ptter's mate	Close-uo of mud block showing straw reinforcement
The road home	This hotel had a very nice pool
Main street of Zagora	The mountains are never far away
Mint tea in a local shop	Choosing a camel
We had a lot of fun with camels	but we all enjoyed it
Berber tents
	Distant women walking from far away
Mud block building in the desert	Camels have very large feet
Camel judder on camera!	Portrait of my camel
and in profile	and the camel drivers
Genuine Sahara sand dune	with distant Berber tents
Map of the Draa valley in the hotel	Out to dinner in another hotel
A bread cosy	A lavish spread of excellent food
The Moroccan drummers paraded in honour of Katie's birthday	Zagora is bottom right, and the camel ride is the dotted line to the south-east of it.
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