We had a very uncivilized start to our day, awake at 4:15am and on the bus traveling by 5:45am. The goal of the day was to cross the Atlas mountains and make it all the way to the city of Efroud on the western side of Morocco so that we could spend the late afternoon on the sands of the Sahara and, if lucky, watch a Sahara sunset.

The drive was tiring but interesting as we crossed both mountains and deserts during the course of the day. The mountain part of the journey seemed to be exhibiting exceptional weather with none of the expected and normal snow.

Nina was more than a little frustrated during the course of the day as she could not, as would be usual when traveling in our yellow beast, simply tell the drive "stop here I want to take a photo", so instead she spent much of the day trying to get sneak shots of the grand scenery and the interesting locals through the window of a moving bus. I must say I felt for her as I know how important her "photos" are to her.

Arriving in Efroud we got a short rest and then were packed into our Jeeps for the trip to the sand (they were not really jeeps but more like a random assortment of Japanese SUVs). We spent a glorious afternoon. Firstly racing through the desert with the local drivers doing their best to thrill us on our way to the Sahara sands. At the sand Nina and some of the others boarded ships of the desert for a leisurely ride over the dunes while the rest of us simply walked to a good vantage point to watch our friends ride and eventually watch the sun go down.

Really despite being "on a bus all day" - it was quite a good day.