Up early (earlier than usual at least!) with another lovely breakfast: spread included eggs today ????

Short walk to the pick up point of our trip – second to last (of course being English) – the bus is filled with couples of five different nations

Road trip to first stop: pottery showing us how they use the raw clay from the Atlas mountains

They soak in water to make it malleable, pottery/fly wheel to mold, bake it in a 900 degree oven and then sell or decorate to sell

Back in the van to go through a town that translates to Scorpion – with the shape of such (as well as having a high population of the actual animal during summer!)

Our next stop: an argan ladies cooperative, specifically the oil for both cosmetic and consumption

We dip bread to taste the edible butter (similar to very strong and pungent peanut butter) and are also served tea that includes a variety of contents: cumin, rose, ginseng, etc

On the road again where we enter the Ourika Valley officially and stop at village Fadma

The trek upwards begins!

Lots of tat shops, no matter how high we go, as well as all sorts of restaurants

Seems to be a very touristy things as we become part of a snake trail of visitors from other tours

We reach the Cascading Waterfall, another example of “Instagram Vs reality” but of course beautiful

Up a bit further to get a view point above and you notice all the other tours like ants scrambling up the hill

After a second to breathe, we go towards another way to head down

Some shouting matches with the valley as it’s great for echos ????

On the trail back, we pass goats and wild Macaque before reaching our late lunch spot

We’re sat by the water in a very authentic restaurant of the Ourika valley – some other restaurants even place tables mid-flow of the river!

Our group reunites with the van and we’re taken to the last stop: a traditional Berber home

It includes a water-powered flour mill; a kitchen with blackened clay walls, from decades of cooking; a naturally cooled pantry and other standard rooms of a house

After, we’re on the bus for the last time heading back to Marrakech

Back in time to watch the sunset with some tea on the roof terrace

Knackered and hungry we head out for dinner to Jama – Daisy has the tagine, Dave has a weird chicken pasty thing with cinnamon on top, still hungry we get some kebabs and chips too!