Ifran, a city in Middle Atlas Mountains -1600 metres high… looks alpine……has a ski resort. It is a university town… $10,000/ year. Runners come to train because of altitude. Lots of snow in winter. Lovely, lovely town…. Very green. Most treed area of North Africa (cypress, pine). Forest is protected from farm animal grazing.

Barbary macaque monkeys… here and in High Atlas Mountains & Gibraltar), wolves, foxes also. Most other animals have been eliminated by farmers. We did not see any Barbary Apes….. they were noticeably absent.

Sometimes in winter this road will be closed because of snow. Lakes in area have flamingos but because of drought, some have dried up. Lots of storks in country. Raven presence means a dead animal nearby. December-March…they will have 1 metre snow. Middle Atlas best area for lamb. Apples and cherries grown in this area.

A human interest story of one of the gals on our tour. She and her family lived through the hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans. Now in therapy how many year after the fact, still suffers from PTSD especially every time another hurricane threatens N.O. …Going into panic mode…. Having the need to keep everything that has some connection to someone or something … not being able to part with stuff (maybe I need therapy too but from what I don’t know).

Still in Middle Atlas but we can see the highest mountain in the Atlas Mountains at 3300 metres.

Arena in Casablanca is 60,000, increasing to 90,000 capacity in hopes of hosting World Cup of soccer in 2030.

Midelt… nice town… camping and hiking to highest mountain (9,900 feet). GAdventures hiking tour has mules for packing stuff and own chef.

The country plants over million trees a year…. pines to prevent erosion, junipers are native.

We arrive in the town called Rich for pit stop and snacks, mid way to High Atlas Mountains

Spectacular scenery driving in High Atlas. It’s been about 10 years since beginning of drought.

High Atlas 60 million yrs old (drier than Middle. Anti-Atlas is 550million yrs old. Tamaracks, palm trees, dates planted. Casbahs are clay buildings/villages that were originally forts….military protection, are now homes. Warmer in winter, cooler in summer because made of clay and have thicker walls. Berbers always built near stream… in mountains and desert…. not in cities which are predominantly Arab.

Since 2006, every home in country has electricity.

The dam seen earlier provides irrigation for the oasis near where we are stopping for lunch. All the people that live here each own a patch of land for growing dates and olives. There is evidence of the fire from extreme heat burned 30 kms….. in an oasis.

We arrived at our casbah hotel literally on the edge of the dunes of the Sahara in Merzouga. Gorgeous infinity pool to cool off in…yes!!! Later some walked the dunes to watch the sun set. 4… no 5 of us rode camels…. best camel ride I’ve had!