This is a small kasbah just outside the town of Tata. It was our last stopping point before going into the desert.

Brahim, our guide, takes for a walk among the date palms surrounding the kasbah.

Another view of the palms.

That night we had the most amazing sunset. This was at about 6:30pm, from our hotel balcony.

And this was taken just a few minutes later, zoomed in on the mountain.

The next day we headed by 4x4 over the Iraki lake basin towards the sand dunes of Chegaga. In this spot, red flowers covered the ground for as far as the eye could see.

When we got to Chegaga, locals were using the rain of the week before to make mud bricks and build temporary shelters. They have to rebuild at least every year because the sand dunes shift and rains can wash the houses away.

From a distance we saw a flock of cranes in the desert -- almost unheard of but the recent rain made it possible for them to survive here.

Here is Andrew, led by Brahim, treking through the area around Chegaga. You can see how green it is. They had enough rain over a couple weeks to last for two years.

We climbed the dunes of Chegaga to see the sunset.

Andrew on top of the second tallest dune. It was very windy.

The sun sinks below the hills.

We prepare to leave Chegaga and load up the camels.

One last look back at the dunes and green fields surrounding them.

One of our camels, tied up so he won't wander too far away while we're stopped.

We were very lucky to spend one night with the family with of one of our nomad guides. At least five children, two wives and the husband live in this tent, although in warm weather they sleep outside.

The view looking out of the tent. Our guide is sitting down and his baby son is on the floor.

A view of another side of the tent. We didn't want to take many pictures as the nomads aren't really used to that. The woman in the picture is making bread.

Our guides prepare to slaughter a goat in our honour. We'll spare you the gory details! The tree in the picture is their "fridge" where they dry meat to use later.

On the last day in the desert, Friedel learned how to make couscous.

Some shots of our last sunset in the desert, taken from our base camp, about three kilometers from the dunes of Erg Lihoudi.

The people that run the agency we travelled with: Naima, Brahim and Mohammed.

On our last day, heading back to Marrakech, we stopped at this Moroccan "truck stop" for lunch in the high-Atlas mountains.

Meat, ready to be cut, cooked and served to customers.