North South divide and we Discover a Mooroccan Spring

There has been a heat wave here with temperatures in the 40sC in the shade. We took off on a little holiday to Meknes and the middle Atlas where it was only in the high 30s.
It was an eventful escape because the car broke down in Meknes, the fan giving out and overheating. We got it fixed but it broke again on Monday when we were nearly at Ouzoud. I could have been quite cross with the hire company but Mustapha had two of his associates drive overnight to deliver us a new car.
Anyway we had never be to the north before and we were surprised by the contrast with the south. By the time you get to Rabat the scenery is entirely different, the main crop wheat and you could be anywhere in Northern Europe. Except that the wheat harvest is in May.there was no rape, and no enclosure Act field system, so you felt that perhaps you weren't in England but there were no bouganvillea, cacti or argan trees so you certainly weren't in the Sousse.
There were other differences though, more like a reverse of Britain's North South Divide. Certainly if prosperity is measured b the ratio of cars to mule carts; private cars to taxis and tractors to Camel bike pickups the North is much more prosperous than the South.I had thought there was a lot of building and public works here in Taroudant but it is eclipsed by the north where all the towns appear to have brand new centres and public buildings and mile after mile of red and white no parking markings.
The people appear more Arab and less Chleuh, fewer turbans, more western clothes and the women wear exclusively Arab or western clothes. However the most noticable differenceis in their time keeping. The northerners definately observe clock time rather than sun time so they are an hour ahead of their southern counterparts and the northerners definately have the weekend on Saturday and Sunday rather than Thursday evening through Friday. This means that their children are on the same time as them , unlike the south.
This year the other difference is that after dry January, February and March, The north had rain in April. This meant that there is an explosion of flowers and a real spring-just like a sunny May at home.

                                      

Our rescuers who brought the new car