Better night sleep last night, we're settling in now!

We decided to head up to the Ourika Valley today for a day trip around the Atlas Mountains. I spoke to my dutch friend Roual and his family last night and they recommended some places. The best way to do it is to get a grand taxi from the edge of town for the day, and this is about 600-700 dirham (£60). The driver then acts as your guide too. We paid 800 dirham in the end. Our driver was a nice guy, but didn't speak a word of english so me and Amy had to get by with our best french (mine is s***). Although when the sun came out he enthusiatically would say "sun! good!". The extent of our English conversation.

Anyway, we drove, with no seatbelts and no speedometer in the car (these cars really are clapped out 80s mercs!) at breakneck speed around the mountains overtaking cars at creeping speeds on corners. I don't think I've ever feared for my life as much! The drivers do these journeys all the time, so know most of the people on the way and when you stop, he would like you to buy something from these people. Our first destination was a small village at the base of the mountain where we had a toilet break and some cool views at some of the berber villages. We had had enough of people putting scarves on our heads to avoided that totally and didn't buy anything this time.

Next was a place where we could go on a camel trek up the valley which we didn't really want to do (wait till India/Thailand!) as Amy got kicked by a horse when she was young and has developed a certain....phobia for hooved mammals! The drivers seemed rather disappointed that the money tap was turned off on this occasion so told us to 'come on' as we walked back to the taxi. We stopped at various places taking photos then came across a Berber house. These are traditional stone huts relying on primitive ways to live. We saw a water powered mill which was amazing; the kitched and bedroom. Amazing to see. On we went to a place where they made different creams from nuts, where we actually bought something, yay!!!

Our last stop was Setti Fatma, a small berber town, by which time we were quite fed up of being a money syphon. Our driver wanted us to eat at 'the cheapest place' which was about £15 each for a 3 course meal. We didn't want this and this enraged the waiter and driver. He sat down to eat with us then got up in a huff and left us when we said we didn't want it. I mean, bloody hell, we weren't hungry!! Feeling really disheartened and pissed off now, we headed back to the taxi after our plates of chips. I gave the waiter 20 dirham tip and he soon become my best friend. A guide came up to us offering us a trek up the mountain for 'whatever we wanted' to pay. The driver was furious as this was not one of his friends, an argument ensued, then we were 'allowed' to trek up the mountain for 15mins to see a waterfall which was a bit of an anticlimax. Oh well, we went across the river on bridges made of sticks! It was fun anyway, but we were exhausted after this. So we asked the driver to take us back.

Mr driver man perked up on the way home, and was still offering to stop so we could buy everything under the sun. We just said no and we happy just cruising along taking pictures of berber villages and waterfalls. Once we stopped and gave the driver 840 dirham, he demanded more money. This f***ed us right off, and we simply said no. Knowing we weren't gonna budge once again, he soon said goodbye in a friendly way, and we were very happy to be free again! The journey was awesome, we loved it, but you realy do need to try and put your foot down about what you do or don't want to do.

We got back to the riad and unwinded. Shortly after the I proposed to Amy, she said yes, wooo! We celebrated with a bottle of wine from the riad, went out to eat.

After experiencing the square and souks at night for the last time we started to make tracks back to the riad, and I could feel myself welling up already about leaving as motorbikes zoomed past my feet and stopping every 10 seconds to let a donkey and trailer pass, alongside the people selling all sorts of everything.

We chilled at the riad reflecting on our time here before going to bed around 11:30 again. What a day.