I thought the walking was over but there was an optional dawn hike this morning, for those with no foot problems and comfortable with a slightly faster pace. About 15 of us volunteered and we set of by starlight at 5:30, with a brick red glow on the eastern horizon.
Cool and easy walking on the salt flats so we set a good pace, stopping after about an hour to watch the sunrise, then continuing onto hamada. The temperature rose rapidly and we just stopped briefly at a remote military checkpoint (almost on the Algerian border). At about 10:30 we reached the fossil bed where we met the rest of the group, and I'm definitely ready to stop.
Climbed into the back of open wagons for a very uncomfortable two hours, bumpy and not a lot to hold onto, and a lot of strange creaking and banging noises from the museum-piece vehicles. In the early afternoon we reach a tarmac road and the waiting coach. Back to civilisation. The coach journey back to Ouarzazate is long and hot, but is broken by a desert style lunch camp set up by the side of the road - a nice surprise.
