Panorama Photo

This is the spot where the road N13 abandons the desert plateau around Errachidia to descend, with a sudden and steep stretch, into the ground of the Ziz valley. A valley, carved more or less deeply inside stratified rocks, and filled with palm trees, is a common sight in Morocco: see also 11914, 11544 or 7323.
I was cycling northwards from the Tafilalet, where I had slept two consecutive nights on the sand dunes. Since I was reasonably hungry, I approached the man who was closing the nomadic-tent-cafè located on top of the steep stretch - of course, a gadget for the dozens of tourist buses and caravans passing by daily, directed to Merzouga. He told me to follow him down to the valley, since he owned also a gîte in the little village of Zouala. After dinner, I decide to renounce to a comfortable room to return up, and to unfold my sleeping bag on this rock shelter. I had already precisely in mind the pixels that you see here - actually, to capture them, the following morning I needed only to stand up and shoot. The next action was to rush towards the kasbah, whose name I have not yet been able to determine, for the single photo www.panoramio.com/photo/88585517 After this, I could turn my efforts to a minimal breakfast: this was only the beginning of a busy day of which I keep little less than 400 shots...
Those here are 16, vertical, 40x1.5 mm , ISO 100, f/8, 1/50 sec.