"A day trip to Setti Fatma" Setti Fatma by davidcross

I had booked three whole days in Marrakech but London and Prague are the only cities where I have managed more than two consecutive days so I was going to have a day out. The Ourika Valley sounded best.

However, a place in a grand taxi sounded problematic and a whole grand taxi sounded expensive. My hosts at the riad suggested I went on a day excursion with Sahara Expeditions and so this I did at the cost of 200 dirhams.

Houses and mosque - no luxury here

t's a Bedouin village and my guide told me that, other than guides and salespeople who had to be able to talk to visitors, nobody spoke anything other than Bedouin, as different from Moroccan Arabic, he assured me, as English is from French.

There was a mosque and what might have been called a single street of houses, had it been a street and not a mud path.

However the setting of the village was delightful and there were restaurants all along the road below with places to sit on both sides of the river, joined by primitive bridges.

In the warehouse.

After my 'tour' of the vilage, I was taken to a carpet warehouse. There I was given mint tea, or as they call it, Berber whisky and invited to sit and wait for my friends.

During the wait the proprietor told me how he was opposed to hard selling tecniques and then worked hard to sell me a carpet. Great as some of then were, I did not succomb

• Pros:Great mountain scenery, relaxing
• Cons:The village and the storm damage were depressing.
• In a nutshell:Overall a good day out.