Late Afternoon Storm

After a very pleasant lunch we climbed back into the bus to continue our journey to Ait Ben Haddou for our overnight stay. There was also the promise of a chance to photograph the Milky Way and I was definitely looking forward to that opportunity.

I got the impression the journey had taken longer than expected. It was around 6pm and we were travelling along a straight bit of road, the mountains far behind us, when Katrina asked the driver to pull over for some photography. I suspect we should have been at our hotels by then but the stop was worth it and the main photo in this footprint shows the sort of thing we were after. A storm was building and there were angry grey clouds forming in the distance, dropping their rain heavily. Then there were flashes of lightning.

Photography here was a bit like playing chicken - this was a road after all, so we took it in turns to be photographers and lookouts to warn when cars or lorries were approaching. We stayed quite a while here, taking various photos, but no one managed to get lightning in their shot. Just before we left our driver and guide both decided to have a moment of madness, jumping high in the air for us to catch them at the highest point in their flight. Photo three is what I managed to get and in one take too, though to be fair it wasn’t taken on my phone - our driver is on the left and our Moroccan guide on the right. I’m not sure I could ever jump that high, but then maybe I’m a bit of a wimp.

Finally we arrived in Ait Ben Haddou and checked-in to our hotels - we had a little time to ourselves before dinner, enough for a shower and to gather our thoughts, whilst outside I could hear thunder. There was no outside window in my room so that’s all I thought it was.Read more