Tafraoute
On February 6th Naima and I drove the 5 or so hours from Essaouira to the small but beautifully located town, Tafraoute in the Anti Atlas range of mountains. The approach as seen above, harbours wonderful valleys of blossom. However we nearly didn't make as it as we ran out of fuel 30 km out, an hour or so from sunset. However within seconds a Berber family were passing and they located a can of diesel for us.
Tafraoute is where I first came to Morocco in January 1991 as a student to make a short film with my newly acquired 16mm Bolex camera. Then I was befriended by a local guy, my age who spoke a little English and with Larbi's help after two weeks I returned to Derby with an unusual film to say the least. My return this week was exciting, naturally the town is bigger and smarter but of course the draw is the surrounding epic landscape. We were only there for the day so we headed to the painted rocks, where I had filmed the main sequence for my short. It still has a magical quality. More remarkable was that unwittingly Naima was wearing clothes that made her part of the landscape.
