We woke early and walked up one flight of steps to the terrace on the tower where we stayed. The mountain could just about be seen in the dawn light. Gordon went down to the room and returned with a hot cup of coffee, we settled down and waited.
As the sun came up, the first rays touched the peak and set it aglow.
In the valley, the apple blossoms were shaking off the morning dew.
We watched as the rays of the sun slowly glided down the mountain face. After enjoying the fresh mountain air for a while, we returned to the room and packed up. Then it was back to the main hall for breakfast.
By the time we finished breakfast, the sun was well and truly out. We now had two options, we could join a group that was going on a short, two hour hike up to some Berber villages, or, we could stay put and relax. No prizes to guess what we opted for.
This was some seriously good down time. Gordon went off to do some photography experiments.....
......and I went to the roof of the main building and sat in the sun for a while.
The kasbah has its own bakery, in the gardens overlooking the mountains and the valley.
I returned to our room in the tower (the top windows in the photo below) and grabbed a book.
We could see the progress of some of the hikers up the hills.......
.......but doing this was so much better !
At mid-day, it was time to leave. We returned to the room, grabbed our stuff, loaded the donkey, and started the walk down.
We stopped midway to say farewell to the mountain. It had been a wonderfully relaxed morning.
We were on the way to the coast, and we stopped on the outskirts of Marrakesh at a family dining restaurant, sat in the garden and ate our usual Moroccan meal. Authentic music, kids running around on the grass, and an almost lazy summer haze made for a nice lunch.
We were off again, and late afternoon, we saw the sea in the distance. In the span of 4 days, we had journeyed from desert to mountains to ocean.
We pulled into Essaouira, and checked into our hotel, the Atlas Hotel and Spa. Deciding to concentrate on the latter part of the name, and in keeping with the general trend of the day, Gordon went off for a massage, while I decided to relax in the room.
One of the advantages of staying back was to be able to witness a truly stunning sunset. The hotel faced the marine boulevard and was thus a ringside seat to the action.
The weather was a bit odd that day, and there was a massive cloud in the sky. Just the area near the horizon was clear.
For a while there was just a golden haze at the far end of the sky, and then suddenly the sun dropped below the cloud. The golden band was reflected like a ribbon on the edge of the sea.
The fiery ball set, and the sky turned pink, then mauve, then purple, and the golden band slowly disappeared.
Gordon returned refreshed from his encounter with the spa, and we decided that we were too lazy to go anywhere to eat. Dinner was room service, a wonderful veggie pasta for me, that I relished all the more for its new found novelty value, and a seafood one for Gordon.
It was a nice, lazy day, and sleep came easy to us in Essaouira.
