New Year's Eve in the Desert (Studiosus Travel Highlights of Morocco)

Our journey through the desert began with a brief stop at a stone grinding workshop.

In the area, there are numerous quarries with fossils, where stones are extracted, processed, and then sold to hotels or tourists (like us in the Sahara yesterday).

We visited one establishment and admired the truly beautiful pieces, even though we refrained from making a purchase.

On the further journey, the tour guide explained to us how the oases were supplied with water: Water was channeled from the mountains to the oases through large underground tunnels.

This technique originated from Persia, and digging the tunnels was slave labor. The many hills in the landscape are the spoil created during the excavation.

With the end of slavery in the 20th century, the irrigation systems fell into disrepair. However, some tunnels have been restored to demonstrate the technique to tourists.

This allowed us to also visit the interior of an old irrigation tunnel.

After a very short drive, there was an unscheduled stop because camels with two albino calves appeared by the roadside, which we, of course, wanted to photograph.

We continued through the vast desert landscape with the Atlas Mountains in the background. 

Next, we stopped at a traditional craft: we observed carpet sales, where Berber carpets from various regions were traded.

We again purchased nothing but looked at the pieces and gladly accepted the offered tea and lunch snack.

In the Tondra Gorge, we walked a stretch through the deep cut in the mountains, which was well developed with a road.

Previously, there were hotels and restaurants directly below the cliff edge until a landslide caused a huge boulder to fall onto the toilet facility used by visitors, completely destroying it. Now all buildings are closed for safety reasons.

In the oasis town of Tinerhir, after a photo stop, we continued with a walk through the cultivation areas of the town.

Here, the population grows food for their own needs.

We spent the night at a Kasbah hotel in Boumalne, where we watched the sunset from the rooftop terrace.

At the hotel, we celebrated New Year's Eve with our very nice travel group.

It featured an abundant buffet with delicious local dishes and shortly before midnight, folklore music and dance, before the dance floor opened with more international music pieces.