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Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Cancun, Mexico on November 1st.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Speeding ticket!

On Wednesday, we drove from Ouarzazate to the edge of the Sahara Desert. We are now only about 25 kms (15 miles) from the Algeria border, although we can't go there because Morocco and Algeria don't get along. The land borders have been closed for years.

There are two main areas that tourists in Morocco go when they want to play in the Sahara Desert. When we were here in 2017, Ruth and I went to Merzouga, but this time we chose to come to M'Hamid.

We left at about 9:30am. 

Most of the scenery was very moon-like.

Weird geographical features.





There are a lot of police checks in Morocco. Not sure what they're looking for, but we always get waved through. They are often located at traffic circles, and the entrance and/or exit to many smaller towns.

The main highway speed limit is 80 km/h (50 mph). I rarely go any faster than that, and often road conditions don't allow for it anyhow. And as you approach a town, the speed limit drops to 60 km/h (36 mph).

So I'm slowing down to approach one of these police checks, and the guy steps out in to the lane and flags me over. I noticed that his buddy had a radar gun, and I thought to myself "hmph... I don't think I was speeding".

But I was... 67 km/h in a 60 zone. That's 41 mph in a 36 mph zone.

The officer was very nice and polite, but also firm. I said "well, that's pretty close" and he said "but the radar...".

Okay. Whatever. I had to pay a 150 dirham ($19.75 CAD, $14.50 USD) fine on the spot. It was official, with a receipt and everything.

And then we were on our way again.





Scenery along the way.




We arrived at the town of Zagora at just after 12:00 noon and stopped on the main road for lunch. A guy approached us speaking quite good English, and said he had a shop across the road for headscarves etc. It's actually very common for the locals to try to attract you to their shops, but this time Lindsey and the kids actually wanted headscarves, so we went over to have a look. Really nice guy, and he made us some tea as well.

Sadie liked this one.

But then she decided it was too colorful.

Lindsey chose this one.

Cameron wanted the "ninja" look!

Here's a video of the one that Sadie chose... https://youtube.com/shorts/yEsBXPOwTWc

If you ever find yourself in Zagora, Morocco, this is the shop to go to!


This town had a rough main street!

We arrived at Dar Sidi Bounou Guest house at about 3:00pm. It's pretty basic, but we're fine with that. The people are really friendly, and the owner has two daughters slightly younger than Sadie. The older one speaks enough English that Sadie and her can communicate.

On oasis in the desert.

They don't have a specific campground, but I asked if they had somewhere suitable to park Max, and it's totally fine.

Max is happy here!

The backyard is the Sahara Desert!
The girls came with us to a sunset viewpoint.

Lindsey, Ruth, and Cameron.

Climbing a small dune to watch the sunset.

Unfortunately, my sunset photo came out all blurry! You'll have to wait for another night to see a Sahara sunset.

Cameron and Sadie on a dune.


Beautiful palm trees.

We had booked our overnight camel trek for this evening, But while Cameron seems to be totally back to normal, Lindsey didn't have a great sleep and isn't feeling the best. So we've put it off until tomorrow.

We'll do some wandering around and exploring today by foot, but it gets hot after lunch so it's going to be a bit of a relax day.

Yesterday's drive 246 kms (152 miles).

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6 comments:

  1. You mentioned the heat - what does the temperature get up to?

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  2. Sorry about the speeding ticket! Is the purpose of the headscarf to protect against blowing sand, or is it a religious/cultural respect thing? They look very nice.

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    Replies
    1. Oh well, it is all part of the travel experience, at least that is what we are putting it down to. We will make sure that we immediately slow down to 60 km or below as soon as we see the sign.

      The headscarf it to basically protect you from the sun and, wind and sand when in the desert. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litham

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  3. I can imagine the night skies there are quite a show!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the night skies are spectacular in the desert. I really hope that Lindsey and the kids will be well enough today to take our camel ride into the desert so that they can experience this amazing sight.

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