Agdz and beyond

You descend into the Drâa Valley at AGDZ (pronounced Ag-a-dèz; 68km from Ouarzazate), a stopping point for many of the buses and a minor administrative centre for the region. The village consists for just one long street, blood-red coloured, save for the columns of its arcade of shops, picked out in flashes of white and blue. Many of these sell carpets and pottery - and in the few minutes before the bus leaves, prices can drop surprisingly. If you stop here -travelling in either direction -it is unlikely that you'll get a place back on the Zagora /Ouarzazate bus; however, there are grands taxis (to either destination), which, like the buses, leave from the "Grande Place", and it is possible to stay, too.

It is certainly worth a stop, for just to the north of the village begins a beautiful palmery. If the river here is low enough (take care to avoid the bilharzia-infested water) you can get across to view a few kasbahs on the far side, in the shadow of Djebel kissane which, as you approach Agdz from the north - and in certain lights - looks more like Djebel Tajine. Geologically speaking, however, it's an outcrop of the Djebel Sarhro.