DESERT TO DADES GORGE - AGOUDAL

The breakfast was really good with the usual freshly squeezed orange juice,  bread and coffee. Drove to the next town where we met our guide who took us to the desert, which was only 17 kilometers away and as lame as I anticipated. Basically just hung out in the open tent, and lunch and tea and then a lame dromedary ride around the sand dunes for forty minutes. Then waited for dinner till after eight and went to another tent where we had a meat tajine that was edible. Went to bed in our tent after looking at the stars again and couldn't wait for the morning to depart.
Got going early and headed for Dades Gorge and after that I continued on the road planning to stop shortly thereafter for the night. Well kept on going cause there were no hotels and ended up driving over a pass on a narrow dirt road and then it was snowing and real ugly up to 3600 meters. I had no idea what the road was like and in the Hyundai it was a little bit frustrating sliding in the mud going downhill in one section. After ten hours on the road and a real disgruntled co - driver we arrived in the village Agoudal and found  a beautiful place with rooms and got the last one and it was clean and freezing inside with many blankets on the bed, thankfully. They made us a tasty Tagine with beef and vegetables which we shared with two other American cyclists, and had cycled the same route we had just done, respect. In the dining room they had a Rough Guides which I read about the pass we did and it advised you that you needed a 4x4 and a shovel and pick to conquer the pass !
The cyclist Gavin had lost a bag the day before so after breakfast I took them back up the road on a fruitless attempt to find it. Crossed the river again in the Hyundai, just what it was designed to do and then met a Swiss cyclist whom had been on the road for 3.5 years and was heading over the pass which had got quite a bit of snow overnight. Bags are gone and after an hour got back to the hotel and bid the cyclists farewell and got off to a late start, but was obliged to help the cyclists and hey that's the way it goes sometimes. The road was tough going for about an hour  and then was smooth sailing after that to Khenifra.