Back towards the sea

We have just arrived at our final hotel in Essaouira. Two days, with free afternoons before we fly home on Sunday morning.

We started the day with a stroll around Taroudant, known as mini Marrakech. As you see it's a pretty little town with people going about their daily jobs.

Then driving on to the ocean (see extra) we visited a women's co-operative involved in the argan oil gathering and extracting. It has as one of its main aims getting rural women out of their restricted lives, earning a little money and eventually having some independence....this is not a quick fix.

The whole experience caused a range of responses from the women in our group: from real cynicism that the women were being exploited, to feeling that anything that worked to encouraging women's independence was good, to just wanting to buy some of the comestics and get rid of a few wrinkles. Interesting!

And finally. A couple of camel extras. I haven't had much success with photographing camels until today.