Slept well on the beach but woke to a thundering sea as high tide brought the water’s edge only metres from the tents. A number of dogs joined camp, following the potential food trail from the kitchen tent. During the night there was some barking commotion, which lasted for a few minutes. In the morning there was a dead fox behind the mess tent, the cause of the barking and a victim of pack mentality. The strange thing was that the fox appeared unmarked. There was a slightly eerie atmosphere on the beach as there was a light mist coming off the sea. The waves were even larger this morning and much better formed as the wind had died.

After breakfast we retraced our steps along the beach and up the steep track into the Argon Forest. Angela was riding a camel this time and soon found herself and Caz trailing behind the rest of the group. Caz’s camel did not like mornings! They eventually caught up, having had a spell of trotting, once they had reached more level ground.
The Argon Forest was much thinner now, not that it was ever dense, and the landscape took on a more general agricultural appearance. Towards the end of the trek we descended towards the sea to pick up a sand dune (the only one we encountered). Soon lunch was reached, which heralded the end of our camel trek. We said farewell to our camel crew and then the two cooks, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey, before we piled into the minibuses again for the 45 minute journey to Essaouira and the Hotel Myramar.
We all had a welcome shower.

A number of the group wished to go shopping while others preferred to stay in the hotel and use the pool. I took charge of Krishan and guided him to the bazaar in the old part of town. He was very particular about what he wanted to buy and took quite some time making up his mind. It would have been nice to have sat in one of the street cafes for a drink and a chance to people watch but that was proving impractical. It was also Krishan’s time so I decided not to even consider doing any shopping for myself.

Joining up with Angela and Russ, Kate and Richard Wheatley for the return to the hotel, we decided to walk along the sea front. On the promenade I felt something in my back and Russ quickly pointed his camera at me, not wishing to miss a photo opportunity. The something on my back was then placed on my head. It was a chameleon. Krishan, Kate and Richard were given it to hold and they were really enjoying the experience. Its owner also had a tray of home made biscuits and small cakes. He kept trying to put one in Krishan’s mouth but we had to stop him because of his nut allergy. In order to show our appreciation of the chameleon opportunity Russ and I decided to buy some. We were choosing a selection when the vendor told us that a chocolaty looking one contained hash. We chose to avoid that one. While we were buying an Englishman, walking past, stopped to alert us to the fact that the biscuits and cakes contained hash. I said I knew and that it was all right. He then commented that he wouldn’t feed them to his children. Unfortunately I did not have a quick and ready answer but shortly afterwards I realised I should have said, ‘Oh, it’s all right, this is a school trip.’ The best lines always come too late.
Returning to the hotel, we discovered that the tiling around the pool was quite slippery; Sam having taken a tumble and bruised his hip and Tom, not having learnt from Sam’s experience, did the same and hurt his arm!
In the evening we ventured across the road to a pizza restaurant for our evening meal. Chicken tagine and a beer – lovely!
Having settled for the night, Tom came to our room complaining about his arm. I suggested he take a couple of paracetamol and I’d deal with it in the morning.

Another glorious wake up call, with the sound of the sea breaking on the shoreline complimented by the much closer sound of camels chewing the cud amongst the tents.
Camp was quickly packed away after breakfast and the camels organised. The group really appreciated the opportunity to ride the camels. We headed inland, taking tracks through the Argon Forest. After an hour the riders changed. Those who weren’t riding walked alongside. After three hours we stopped for lunch in the shade of some argon trees and then continued for a further hour and a half. I had a go for the last 45 minutes, which saw us descend to a beach and our campsite on the sand, under the cliffs. It is absolutely stunning. The sea was particularly impressive with the waves having twelve foot faces on them.

Many of the students went into the sea but not before we had clearly given them the rules. They could not go above waist deep, which would mean they were well short of the breaking waves but would still have to cope with the extensive wash and the second, smaller wave. There was a very strong back wash which made it doubly important for them to abide by the rules and look after each other. Despite the rules and the fact that the water was quite chilly, they had a good time. Phil, Russ and I policed them from within the water while Angela and Tracey watched from the water’s edge.

After sunset we had a camp fire and a sing-song with the camel crew who had a banjo and an empty water container for drums.
A fabulous day.

We were still above 2000m where we camped and we woke up with ice on the tents for the first time, despite it not feeling as cold. Perhaps the lack of wind allowed the ice to form. However, we were all woken much earlier, at 4.37am, by the call to prayer which boomed from speakers mounted on the top of the minaret above the mosque. This was repeated with a reminder a few minutes later. I wonder how many people actually respond to the call?

Three minibuses came to collect us and while the kit was being secured on the roof racks a few of us chose to visit the nearby school. One or two of the NCW students had bits and pieces to give them and they also wanted to give some money to the school. I took the opportunity to hand over my bag of balloons, there not having been much opportunity to get them out previously. They won’t last long with so many prickly bushes around.
We said goodbye to the muleteers and piled into the minibuses for the 7 – 8 hour journey to meet our camel team. It appeared there was some confusion about the number of camels we were having. I was determined we would not miss out on riding them this time so I phoned the office to find it had already been resolved and we were to have eight camels for riding in addition to the eight that were to carry the kit.

The journey was very pleasant, very little traffic, on good roads. I thought we might have seen something of Tallodine, an ancient walled city, but we by-passed it and saw nothing.
Between Tallodine and Agadir we were stopped by the police and our driver was fined for speeding. The road was dead straight with a speed limit of 100km per hour. Temporary 60km per hour signs were put up at the side of the road, hardly visible, and he got caught. There was some discussion, which became animated at times. Unfortunately, the police had the upper hand and a uniform on their side. The trick is to fine drivers for speeding, which has a statutory 700 Dirhams fine. In the police records they put the offence down as not wearing a seatbelt which carries a 300 Dirhams fine. Therefore, 400 Dirhams ends up in the pockets of the police. Nice one.

We stopped near Agadir airport for a drink and again at a huge, French influenced, supermarket, where we casually shopped while Jamal and the remaining members of the team bought lunch.

We did not see a great deal of Agadir either but it is a modern city rebuilt after it was flattened by the 1960 earthquake. The coastline, which we followed for some miles north of Agadir, was beautiful and we stopped for lunch at a cliff top pull in a few miles up the coast. Further up the coast road we turned inland and through the Argon Forest. We later headed back towards the sea and our camping site just behind the beach. While the tents were being set up by the camel crew we took a stroll on to the beach and the students played at the water’s edge as the sun set out to sea. It was stunning.

Our last day of trekking saw us climb slightly out of camp to a high point on a ridge. Kate was not feeling too well and after a dose of sickness and diarrhoea I put her on a course of cypro. It had certainly worked with Ben who made a quick recovery. From the top of the ridge it was downhill all the way. The group was well spread out and came together for a brief rest stop, but soon spread out again as soon as we started walking again. Some were better able to cope with the terrain than others. Kate was struggling and Angela and I both took turns to guide her. When we reached lunch she realised she had not put her walking socks on. She had several very angry looking blisters. Her trek was over. After lunch she covered the rest of the distance on a mule. Soon after lunch we came to the first village, quite a large one on the other side of the valley. It coincided with the weather looking as if it was going to change for the worse. Having started out very clear and sunny, dark, heavy, clouds now loomed and the base of them obliterated the ridges above. Fortunately it did not rain. The rock formations were also very interesting with wind carved features forming a cliff to our right.
Eventually we reached the next village where our camp was to be by a school. When we got there the muleteers had pitched the tents in a lay-by opposite the school. Jamal was not impressed but the muleteers could not pitch camp where Jamal wanted because they did not have the camping fee. For a few minutes there was chaos as the tents were moved to a more suitable site as the light rapidly faded.
Today was Harriet’s 19th birthday and we were expecting a cake but nothing materialised. We did, however, have a sing song after dinner led by by the irrepressible Tom!

Woke up to a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky. Our target for the morning, Guiliz, stood out in the morning sunshine. After breakfast we set out, crossing the valley to then climb steadily up to the ridge. The summit looked quite close but the summit dome was deceptively large. As we progressed up the dome it became steeper, with lots of loose rocks about the size of large dinner plates. It was tough for the NCW students but they stuck to the task fantastically.

Eventually we reached the summit and had fabulous views all round. To the north the High Atlas were covered in fresh snow from the bad weather of the previous two days. No wonder it was proving quite cold at night. We spent about half an hour on the top before we set off in threes back to camp. If anything the going down was much harder, hence the trees – two sighted to each NCW student.

Coming down the dome was particularly hard. Having done the worst of it I lost my balance, possibly because I had Kate pulling on my rucksack, fell and placed my arm into a particularly prickly bush, which deposited numerous thorns into me. I remember thinking ‘I’m glad I am not a balloon’.

After lunch we left camp and continued on our trek to the next camp. We traversed around the valley, eventually reaching a high point on the ridge, which afforded fantastic views to the west of layer upon layer of ridges with a slightly varying blue tinge to them. From there it was only a short distance down to camp, another relatively high spot at just over 2600m, and quite cold once the sun had gone down.