INTO THE HEART OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS

Today’s destiny is Zaouiat Ahensal. Starting early in the morning and the first 15 kms were very easy a comfortable while passing through several small villages like Tabant, Imelghas, Ikhf-n-Ighir. We bought some water and sweets in one of them. The route climbs and we know that it is a begginig of an ascent up to 2.800 meters to a mountain pass Tizi n’Tirghist. I have to say we enjoyed it. The weather was perfect; we had a beautiful view and a lot of time to pedal. We were just enjoying these unforgettable moments of this adventure. So far everything went like a charm.

THE SCENERY  TRANSFORMS RAPIDLY

Up in the mountain pass it was a kind of chilly and windy so we did not waste much time but we noticed the valley we were just entering was totally different to the one before. The hills were immense and infinite but very dry with almost no vegetation. For a long part of the day we did not pass through any village, we pedaled alone. There were some up and downs and suddenly we were about to start first descent of the day to Souk Hebdomadaire.

We noticed some lone houses if you can call it like “houses” on the slopes around the road and there were dead trunks of the trees everywhere around. People who live around cut the branches of the trees to make a fire. The problem is that they have almost no trees left, and the place looked like a tree cemetery. This happens to the Berber people in many places of Atlas. Some people told us that the government of Morocco is preparing a program to help to these people to live a better life because they are very, very poor here. We had a strange feeling of this place.

THE PRICE OF BEING A FORIGNER

The group stopped in a “bar” to have a tea because we were tired. The wind together with high altitude made our heads kind of tired. After paying for the tea almost 4 times more than a local person would pay (which we did not know) we set on finishing the day. We had some problems to find the place to stay overnight in Zaouiat Ahensal. Crossing the village from one end to another with all the kids screaming a running behind us asking for some little things to give them or even trying to steal something from our bags. The agony stopped when we closed the door of the gîte d’etape. We found ourselves in the patio of the house. Gentle people, beautiful views to the village and again we were alone. No other tourist.