Today Morocco gave me what I came in search for. Peace and quiet, silence, and lots of dirt roads.

  Setting out from Al-Hoceima, after breakfast with three Italians from Parma, taking the N2 to Targuist, a windy tarred beautiful road. Then a little piece south on the N8 and immediately south again in the direction Beni-Ammart. 

     At first I was disappointed to find it tarred, but hit some town, drive through it, and offroad paradise starts. In a beautiful environment, mountain gorges and cliffs all around, the roads wind along the mountains.

  Around Tizi-Tfir a pine forest takes over and you can just inhale the stunning pine smell, so different to the normal dry windy dust. There I drove into the forest and alas, found what I came for. Total silence. It is just such a scarce and rewarding moment. At some point after a steep descent into a gorge the road forks, and of course you do not expect any signs. Left or right? I took right, on a tight bendy and steep pass, covered in fine sand, even on the steep parts. On the way I drive past small settlements amongst Cannabis fields, with a less friendly crowd, distrust in their eyes. They are very poor, and live in almost slum conditions – so far I have not seen the inside if a house. This road ended at a house, and as I realized I had come to end of the road, I had big eyes looking at me. I took all the gear off and greeted friendly, and with that started communication with neither side understanding anything. But after some initial confrontational fears, the nature of a decent human being is inherently friendly, helpful and hospitable. I was invited to eat something, I should have said yes, but also I had my confrontational fears… A mistake, perhaps I would have seen the inside of a house by now. They pointed me in the right direction, which implies around here pointing to another mountain and directing through another gorge… :-). The right way was left, and sometimes it pays to go right. There is always a road, and there are always people, and most of them are great!

It is a harsh enviroment, hot, dry, windy and dusty. You wonder how the same beautiful girl who is herding sheep or riding a donkey would have turned out in different circumstances, a Harvard degree, and would her life be happier? I cannot show her to you, because Berbers are inherently shy. But I will still make it into a house, and I will still get my pictures! So over another mountain and a beautiful descent into Tahar-Souk, that is noteworthy for people being particularly inquisitive and friendly, with some foreign language skills.

From M’hamed I learnt that South Africans are not that popular in Marocco since political support for the Western Sahara dispute was more on the side of Algeria. It is however perfectly good to be Alleman, perhaps because it is Mercedes that drives Marocco. A beautiful surprise was a sudden lake not visible on my map on the road to Taïneste, the dam wall makes an impressive Construction between two mountain cliffs. No photos allowed unfortunately.

So tonight I find myself at N34 38.098 W4 08.510, 1118m. Try it, it makes for great sunsets. All you hear is nothing, silence, and the occasional complaint from a donkey. In my field of vision of 30km, I can count less than 20 lights!…

And tonight’s special treat, ice cold coke coming out of the freezer from Tahar-Souk, so i have coke on ice tonight, along with the lightning fireworks display of an electrical storm blasting continuously to compete with intense light of the moon. This is what I came for, silence, tranquility, action and smiles on peoples faces. The latter occasionally takes some work…