It’s now October 1 and we are at the beautiful and quirky Perle du Dadès riad near the city of Boumalne, about 130 km from Ouarzazate. And we have internet — of sorts (like not in our rooms), so I’m sitting on the terrace with a glass of red and attempting to re-cap the last three days since we left Fès.

I’ll start with Thursday, September 29 — a very long travel day. After loading the bus with all our bags – including the humongous ones – we were off down the highway via Azrou, on the edge of Morocco’s ski fields with Swiss style hotels and guest houses, to Merzouga and the desert.

(This pic was actually taken today when leaving the desert, but you get the idea of how brilliant Majid is at loading the bus.)

Departure from Fès was at 7.30 am and we finally arrived at our camp in the Sahara almost 12 hours later. We had a couple of stops to view the scenery and have a late lunch.

Despite the hour, we were not too exhausted to admire the truly beautiful views of the dunes and appreciate the peace and quiet of this isolated campsite just 40 km from the Algerian border.

Now when I say campsite, we were not exactly slumming it. Hot and cold running water, showers, a flushing loo, a king size bed, carpets on the floor and air conditioning!

After an enormous supper and some welcome wines (smuggled in alter a shopping trip to a Fès supermarket on Wednesday morning), the lads put on a drum show around the fire and had Ben and Thilly join the band.

A chance to admire the stars in a perfectly clear sky before a well earned rest.

I will send Day 16 tomorrow.