Kalam picked us up at 9:30 for a full day drive to our next destination, the Dar Ahlam in Skoura. Our itinerary said that the drive was four hours, but that was written before we had to change hotels to the Olinto because of damage to the Kasbah Tamadon. The Olinto was in the wrong direction, so the trip over the High Atlas Mountains would now take five hours, plus any stops.

I was worried about the roads, as the trip into the mountains a couple of days ago was on pretty bad, very windy pavement for much of the trip. And we were going to spend more time in the mountains this time. But as it turned out, today we were on the main road across the range, and large portions of it had been recently replaced and straightened. It was still a mountain road, and it was mostly two lanes (except for a passing lanes on uphill grades). But overall, it was smoother sailing than the previous trip.

Portions of the road were still under construction. At those points we were diverted onto a section – usually a few hundred yards long – of the old road, which tended to be closer to the edge and have very poor pavement, or no pavement at all. But this was a small portion of the trip.

Along the way we passed through a number of villages, all of which had the same appearance from the main road: several blocks of small shops, selling groceries, building supplies clothing and souvenirs, snacks. We passed more examples of earthquake damage.

Where the north side of the mountains were forested and green up to the tree line, the south side was much drier and had much less, and smaller, vegetation. Another few hours south of here the Sahara Desert starts, so the climate is drying out as you come off the mountain peaks.

As we pulled into Skoura, the town where the Dar Ahlam hotel is, I was following the driver’s path using Google Maps. We kept turning down smaller and dustier dirt tracks until we came to a stop in front of a door in an unremarkable wall. Homes, even relatively simple ones, are often built around courtyards with no exterior windows to the street and simple doors. But this looked weird for a hotel, even though there was a small sign which did not give the name of our hotel. Even the driver and guide looked perplexed. Our guide pulled his phone out and a moment later, the door opened and someone came out to greet us.

At this point the hotel staff took charge of us and our luggage. Our guide and driver said goodbye, as they were heading home for the weekend and would meet us Monday afternoon in Casablanca.