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.

Had to start today’s blog with these pics of beautiful Moroccan lanterns in the Riad Madu and in the Sahara desert, taken a few days ago.

Now we are in a little village, 6 km north of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Aït Benhaddou, location for many a movie, such as Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and more recently Game of Thrones. 

We left Les Jardins de Skoura this morning for a scary ride through a dry river bed before rejoining the highway to Ouarzazate and eventually to our riad in Tamedaght.

Pam and I have stayed at Kasbah Ellouze before and love the place.  Surrounded by pisé (mud brick and straw) buildings, it overlooks an oasis of palm trees and the most stunning bare mountains.  It also helps that we have a clear, pollution free, blue sky as well as the hospitality of French couple Michel and Colette who own and run the riad.

The artists got to work after lunch while the others walked and enjoyed the sunshine around the pool.

Settling in now for a gin & tonic on the terrace while the evening call to prayer streams from the nearby mosque.  Peace!

Marrakech tomorrow and a change of pace.

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.

Credit to Rick for a fabulous photo taken from our riad in Merzouga.  Magic!

Well it’s now Day 12 (Wednesday) and we are in Skoura, many kilometres away from Merzouga and the desert camp, and about  40 km from Ouarzazate.  And we’ve just settled into our riad, Les Jardins de Skoura, and enjoyed a fabulous meal in the garden.

But the internet here is extremely slow courtesy of a massive storm a few weeks ago, which knocked out the riad’s network.  So, a truncated blog tonight with no photos, except for the one above which I’d uploaded on yesterday morning in Merzouga.

Our time in the desert combined every Saharan experience one could wish for: sun, clouds, sand storms, thunder, and even rain (we’re assured it only rains three times a year and we were there for one of them!) But also plenty of painting opportunities for our group.

The tents were glamping at its best: huge beds, power points to recharge phones, tiled bathrooms with flushing loos and a wonderful shower.

Sitting under the stars with a glass of wine after dinner last night, admiring the stars and hearing the beating of the Berber drums is a most wonderful experience.  True peace.

More tomorrow I hope.

An early morning farewell to little Switzerland after a most pleasant stay in our chalet there in Azrou,  where some of us painted, some of us swam (that would be me) and some of us played the grand piano (that would be Chris).

A pretty long drive covering close to 400 km from Azrou through the Middle Atlas Mountains to the Sahara and the Riad Madu, literally on the edge of the dunes.

Graffiti in the Atlas Mountains! (You might have to zoom to see what Omar wrote):

Then along the Ziz River with more awe-inspiring views of incredible mountains and rock formations.

And a stop to buy some fossils (that’s the second pic!  Majid and I aren’t quite fossils yet).

After a lunch break at a roadside café in Arrachidia, and still sticking with the very lengthy Oeud Ziz, we stopped for a look at the palmerie and some adobe villages.

Then another 120 km or so and we were at our destination, the Riad Madu in Merzouga, on the edge of Erg Chebbi, one of the two main Saharan sand dune areas in Morocco.  The view from our (Pam’s and my) room is hard to beat:

Most of us were in the pool soon after check-in at 4.45 pm before a sand storm dispersed us to our rooms to prepare for a sumptuous supper and bed.

Tomorrow we head to a camp in the desert so I doubt I’ll have internet there, which means Day 11’s report will be held over to Day 12 when we get to Skoura (Wednesday, Oct 10).  If you don’t hear anything, we’ve probably all become nomads and loped away on our camels.

We are two hours south of Fès tonight in a village created by the French in the 1930s to appear like a European alpine resort.

The houses are mostly wooden and stone and have sloped shingle roofs — just like Switzerland!  And amazing as it may seem, this is indeed a ski resort in the winter.  Here is our hotel:

But before we talk about today, some pics from last night’s dinner venue, Dar Roumana. What a find and worth the 10 minute trek through the medina to get there!

This morning was spent painting within our lovely riad — and what a perfect peaceful place to inspire creative juices.

There was time for a showing of the art while Majid, in full regalia, took care of our luggage.

After lunch, off to Azrou for painting in the nearby cedar forests, the biggest in Africa, and home to Barbary monkeys.

Dinner in our chalet tonight before a very early getaway tomorrow for the long drive to the desert.

This is the Fès medina taken from a lookout to the south of the old city showing how congested it is and why you shouldn’t try to navigate on your own without a guide.

So this morning we were all escorted through the labyrinth to the Palais  Glaoui where our artists spent the day in this quiet old and somewhat (actually quite a lot) dilapidated building that was once the Fès home to a powerful, despotic and somewhat corrupt (actually quite a lot) Pasha from southern Morocco.

You can see a lot of its former magnificence in the painted window shutters, the zelige (tiles or azulejos) and in the stained glass windows that signify an owner of considerable wealth.

A descendent of the original owners, Sidi Abdou is an an accomplished artist and as well as being caretaker of the old palace, he uses the building for his studio.  This is he, our host for the day:

And this is our group, in whom he was mightily interested:

Meanwhile, the four non-painters were taken on a tour of Fès to see the King’s palace, the Jewish quarter, the lookouts and the famous Fès pottery.

Dinner tonight is at Dar Roumana and tomorrow we head south to Azrou.

All aboard our bus again this morning for a relatively short hop to the hillside village of Moulay Idriss, named for the saint of the same name and great-grandson of the Prophet, who brought Islam to Morocco in the 9th Century.

Glenda didn’t get the memo about no fancy dress required:

Our destination was Scorpion House, owned and operated by Mike Richardson, a most charming and entertaining British guy and long time Morocco resident.  This is the view from his home:

Scorpion House is now pretty much completed, parts of it having been still under construction when we visited two years ago.  It is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece on multiple levels, seemingly clinging to the hillside above the ville.

After much photography, our artists, under Ev’s guidance, produced some really wonderful works as they scattered among the various nooks, alcoves and balconies of the house.

This second pic of artists at work was taken from above and is not upside down or sideways!

This was all before Mike and his assistants unveiled what has to be the best meal we’ve enjoyed so far in Morocco.  A feast of salads, couscous, kefta kebabs and chermoula sardines grilled in an amazing way that just has to be exported to Portugal.

More painting and snoozing after lunch before a display of the art for all to admire.

Then bye-bye Pogo, Rick’s new best mate, before the bus journey back to Fès.

I think it’s fair to say that we all loved Chefchauen.  Lovely gentle people, good shopping, stunning mountain scenery and well, you can’t get over the blue, no matter how many times you walk down the side streets to discover yet another photo op.

But it was time to head to our bus for the trip through the Rif mountains to Fès via some dramatic scenery, including a lake lookout where, of course, Majid had to show off his latest turban:

After a really rapid lunch at a dodgy looking restaurant, we were dropped at the blue gate entrance to the Fès medina for a three+ hour 7 km walk through some of the 35,000 alleys and 9000 derbs (dead ends) that comprise this thousand year old World Heritage wonder.

It is almost impossible to describe the sensual overload of this incredible gob-smacking jaw-dropping place, which is home to over 200,000 Fassis and thousands of tiny businesses and souks of every colour and offering you can imagine.  Plus 450 mosques.  And a wonderful medrassa (Koranic school) from the 14th century (Bou Inania), which is just so beautiful:

And a nearby mosque, not open to non-Muslims, but viewable from the alley outside:

Further on, it’s surprising who you might bump into:

Our riad for the next three nights is the El Amine on the edge of the medina — really not too shabby…

…although the steep steps to the top level were a bit of a challenge.  A wonderful dinner with a spectacular local desert before retiring for a well-earned rest. (As you may have surmised, it was a non-paining day today, but just wait until tomorrow!)