We’re back on track with the blogs.  This is Day 13 and it actually is Day 13 — Thursday, October 11 — and we spent the whole day at the beautiful Les Jardins de Skoura.

The weather was idyllic and our painters took the opportunity to create some masterpieces in the gardens and from the roof terraces of this gem of a riad.

While a few of our group took a guided four-hour walking tour of Skoura, others swam in the beautiful pool and painted pomegranate trees.

A truly beautiful place.  I could stay here for  week — just for the peace and tranquillity of the architecture, the gardens, the flowers, the pomegranate trees, the donkeys in their pens, the gentle, smiling peope, the extremely calming call to prayer echoing though the palmerie.

It’s Morocco.  A seductive country.

Can’t end tonight’s post without one more desert and camel shot.

And now we are up to date.  On to Kasbah Ellouze tomorrow.

I’ve been able to upload some photos from Day Eleven, so I’ll go back to Tuesday when we were still at the Riad Madu in Merzouga in the morning and then at the desert camp for the afternoon and evening.

Such a beautiful location for our riad, right on the edge of the desert with views across to the dunes that Ev just had to find a quiet place to capture in watercolour.

The group assembled after breakfast for a morning of painting around the pool followed by a critique session with Ev before lunch.

Before we move on, I just have to share a pic from the night before of one of the gorgeous Moroccan lanterns in the dining room:

Now for the camp.  As mentioned in last night’s blog post, we had everything — sun, wind and rain — but it didn’t stop our group.  Here are a few pics from our afternoon and evening in the Sahara, including 10 of the group who opted for a camel ride at sunset.

Some of us enjoyed a glass of wine outside their tents…

…while watching the setting sun. (Algeria, by the way, was just 10 km away over those dunes!)

Now for the real report of Day Twelve, which took us from the Sahara via Rissani (ancestral home to the King) and the mud brick village of Tinejdad, where we lunched, to the Todra Gorge.  First a stop to survey the scene:

And then a walk along the river and the gorge that is one of Morocco’s many natural wonders.

So here we are now in Skoura at the Les Jardins de Skoura riad, owned and run by the delightful Mme Caroline.  More on the riad in Day Thirteen’s blog.