The bloke at Dar Ayour had made a point of directing us via Erfoud rather than Errachidia, which I had intended anyway, as it is the shorter route. Interestingly, when we got the turn-off in Tinejdad, the road sign at the fork that indicated Errachidia straight ahead and Erfoud to the right, some local mongrel had defaced the word Erfoud to make it illegible.
A short way down the road was Rissani where we stopped despite Joan's wish to the contrary. We did a walk along a few back alleys and then had a Coke (yes!) before continuing on our way.
We had a pizza lunch in Erfoud, pizza Reine, this time with visible bits of meat. Quite good actually - it was served on a large 10" square plate with bits of Moroccan salad in each corner. The meal really revived me as I had been fading fast.
For a while nothing changed then civilization died out and we started to see sand drifting across the road. It was just then of course that we came up behind a small convoy of German campervans. Overtaking them under these conditions was interesting, reminding me of my drive from Peace River to Yellowknife in July 1969.
We had no trouble spotting the prominent hotel sign by the side of the road and drove on dirt for 1.5 Km to the Kasbah Mohayut. I should not fail to mention that the road conditions were generally good - nothing to daunt an Aussie at least. The hotel has a courtyard for passenger vehicles at the front where we parked. Strangely, it felt cooler once I got out of the car. It seemed to be a large and busy place with lots of people about.
We checked in and agonized about the dune tour, feeling that prevailing conditions were unpromising to say the least (howling wind, haze and dust). We had debated the wisdom of following through on this along the way, and although I was vacillating, Joan was firm in insisting that we hadn't come this far not to see the dunes. The staff informed us that the tour leaves at 5:30am. More discussion ensued and in the end we decided to go for it.
Our room is large and much cooler inside, a blessed relief. We felt positively cold after returning from our swim in the pool. It was my intention to have a walk in the dunes, so I went out for a recce. Having just mounted a small dune I was immediately greeted by a local. I had no doubt he was selling something but I engaged him in conversation about the weather, specifically when the wind would die down. He indicated in about another 40 minutes. So I went back to our room for a short rest before changing and heading out again.
He was still there of course but I evaded him and trekked around, along and across a few small dunes. At the edge of the "Dune" there are many small dunes surrounding completely flat areas. The flat bits were collecting areas for the detritus of hommo vagabondus - plastic bags, drink bottles, etc. While on the dunes I observed a group of three 4WDs hooning around. They came to stop in one of the flat bits where there was an abandoned dwelling, completely hidden below the crest of the dunes. In other flat bits were round concrete towers about 2m high which I took to be wells servicing the string of hotels at the wedge of the Dune.
I was particularly delighted to observe a number of black beetles active on the leeward surface of the dune. They move quite rapidly and change direction often. When they reached the crest they turned around immediately.
Dinner was a buffet of the usual tagine sort of dishes. Plentiful at least. Afterward, we sat on the terrace for a bit observing the peace and quiet and the full moon.
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