It has been storming sand for days in a row and our eyes are hurting. We are leaving M’Hamid without regret. Mohamed wakes up a bit before five and walks us half a mile to the bus, which will take us to Ouarzazate. We were there some days ago and will just spend some hours waiting for another CTM bus - destination Skoura.
7 kms on gravel road on the back of this humpy-bumpy motorbike transport leaves us with sore backs.
The reward is to arrive, sain et sauf, to the Palmeraie, where we have booked with Madame Saadia and Mr Hassan for a couple of nights. It is a lovely, peaceful place and our room is huge and perfect.
The almond trees have bloomed and the fruits are already well developed.
Skoura is not only palms and almnd trees. Some years ago the World’s oldest dinosaure, ‘Tazoudasaurus Naïmi’ was found 20 kms north of town. It was estimated to be 180 mio yrs old.
There are 2.900 inhabitants in Skoura and 150.000 palms in the 7 km long palmeraie , but not one of them is to be taken for granted. One concern is Bayoud disease, a fungus that passes from palm to palm. Unesco is taking steps to protect palm oases throughout Marocco.
But Skoura’s majestetic palms face another danger. Poverty. During desperate situations when crops fail, some people illegally sell palms to support their families.
To adress this problem, Shoura Cultural Center recently opened a shop from where local items made with palm fronds are sold.
We met the Mr Aziz over a drink with Mr Hassan and Mohamed at 123Soleil and heard about his admirable project.
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