How’s this for a location for breakfast?  Before that, some of our group began the day early at Kasbah Ellouze by watching traditional bread making behind our riad in Tamedaght.

For respect, we’re not showing the lovely local ladies making the bread, but their efforts were enjoyed later on the bus when we all tore off strips of hot, freshly baked bread.  It’s absolutely the staple in the Moroccan diet and served flat and round with every meal even in the humblest of restaurants.

Although only 150 km away, the trip to Marrakech took most of our Saturday.  We stopped a few times for photo ops as we drove through the dramatic High Atlas Mountains, at heights over 2000 metres.

Lunch was at a Women’s Cooperative where we first watched how argan oil is made by grinding the kernels.  It takes 100 kg of nuts to produce one litre of oil, so no wonder it’s not cheap.

They are building a new highway linking Marrakech to Ouarzazate but it’s still very much under construction, which made our trip long but shall we say, very interesting to watch the local driving habits.

Majid was brilliant although he did wind down the window to yell a few choice words in Arabic to some of the more idiotic over-takers (“zen-zen” apparently means “crazy” and those of you who know Japanese know the expression as well and I guess it could mean “zen-zen no sense.”

We finally made it to our home for the next three night: Riad Ambre et Épices.

And before dinner on the roof terrace, we had time, over drinks, for Ev to critique the last few days’ work.

A serious day of painting ahead tomorrow.