Sunday 7 February

Tafraoute is in a kind of a bowl, ringed by mountains, so that although it's light the sun doesn't make an appearance until a little after dawn. Up at 7.45 with Jamie I was delighted to catch the moment the sun first suddenly lit up the opposite mountains, as if a switch had been pressed, then just as suddenly spread over the site and town. Brilliant. And then the quite cool morning quickly became very much warmer, to turn into another glorious red hot day (we saw 33 deg in the town later).

As it was Sunday, bacon and eggs for breakfast before a walk down into the town for essential supplies. Being a Muslim country most shops are open on Sundays, although the occasional one closes for an extended lunch break, reopening around 4.00 p.m. until quite late. One very full shopping trolley later we had replenished drinking water, orange juice, vegetables, cereal, jam (very important that one) and eggs so dawdled back to the van to liberate a very restless puppy.

We don't take Jamie into town with us, he's too much of a liability, instead we leave him in the well-ventilated van with plenty of water and his toys. Apart from one occasion, when we accidentally set the alarm and he kept setting it off, he has never been any bother; we usually ask someone to listen out for him. But he does get a bit enthusiastic when we get back!

A light lunch then settle down for some proper relaxation in the sun, Bren making further inroads into the lap quilt, a long-term embroidery project. Even Jamie went to sleep in the sun, not really bothering with the various local ladies walking round the site with their young children, who have no compunction in coming up to you asking for bon-bons. Trouble is, you give in to one and next minute there's fifty of them!

Then as suddenly as it came up, the sun went down, but not before giving another glorious multi-colour display on the mountains. Magical. So pack away all the daily paraphernalia and as it gets dark, a lovely beef casserole made from a superb piece of steak bought in town this morning - £3.80 for half a kilo and so fresh I'm sure we said hello to it on our way into town.................