In the Anti-Atlas

It has been a long and busy day,

There was a lot of rain overnight, so I hoped it would be dry during the day. Hmm.

We drove for over an hour to our first stop and made our way in stages up into the foothills of the mountain range.

Our first stop was to see the wonderfully named “Apple of Sodom” (Calotropis procera). You can see the beautiful flowers opening in my second extra. We were also looking for the caterpillars of a rare butterfly but none were to be found!

Instead we saw several wild tortoises. We have a tortoise expert in our group. He has successfully bred tortoises at home.

Our coffee stop was at a café. There is always anxiety as to whether the places we have booked will be open during Ramadan. Some of us bought dates at a local shop and others looked at hand made shoes. Alison bought a pair. I found a shoe maker who was happy to be photographed whilst working.

My main blip is the guardian of an agadir, which means granary. The building is owned by the community and each family has a small locked room in which to keep much more than grain. Valuables were stored here too. This one is more than 500 years old.

Cats are kept by the guardian to keep down the rats who are attracted by the grain.

Mohammed, our guide, gave us all sorts of interesting facts about the place.

We had packed lunch there and it rained. It was really quite cold today, so not as pleasant.

We then did a lot of stone lifting to look for residents underneath. Paul had the highest success rate. I found a large spider and some termites! It suddenly poured and we had to race back to the minibus.

The other extra is a marvellous millepede discovered by Dom.

After dinner, we went out to see toads, frogs and whatever else moved!