The trip from Merzouga to Marrakesh is a pretty straightforward one – except for a brief stopover for lunch in Kalaat M’Gouna and a couple of toilet breaks (one in another restaurant and another in a hotel with a pool in its central courtyard), most of the day was spent inside the car. We passed through central Morocco, a region defined by the Atlas Mountains, where desert landscapes are filled with palm oases and Amazigh villages. Since the ride to Marrakesh takes about nine hours and we’re aiming to get to the city in time for dinner, we couldn’t get down even for the briefest photo ops of the kasbahs and indigenous houses perched on the sides of mountains.

Some of central Morocco’s attractions are within a daytrip’s range of Marrakesh, but since I’m working on a tight budget and timeline, I mentally reserve them for my next trip to Morocco (hopefully). In the meantime, I content myself with a couple of decent shots I took from a moving van.