Leaving Ormskirk at 3:45am with Ralph and Eugene, we headed off to Manchester Airport and with only a few delays on the way there, we were more than ready for a sleep on the plane. A calm and relaxing flight awaited us, followed by a short discussion about what the first bird was to be when we landed in Morocco. Collecting the hire car took a while but a good and roadworthy car for the terrain we intended to take it on. Most interestingly, the first bird we encountered was infact House Bunting inside the actual airport around the car hire desk!! Dumping our gear in the car, we headed out of Marrakech following a guy on a scooter who was going to show us the way out of the area and fair play to him, he did actually take us to the correct road. The plan was to head for Oukaimeden for some High Atlas Mountain birding for the day.
Driving towards Oukaimeden we stopped en-route every 10-15 minutes as birds seemed to be everywhere and we were keen to see everything!
During the drive to our first main site of the trip we encountered some superb birds such as our first Barbary Partridge, Little Swift, Moussier's Redstart, Western Olivaceous warbler, African Blue Tit, Common Bulbul and African Chaffinch of the trip.. Eugene was keen to have a look over the edge of the cliff, but we were to see worse heights than this along the way. A grand total of 48 species for the day and 8 lifers.
Driving higher and higher into the Atlas mountains until we could drive no further, we spent the night in a french hostel with a lovely meal and well earned beer. A quick shower and we hit the sack for an early morning walk high into the Atlas Mountains.
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