After an early wake-up the direction leads southwest and I am happy to be riding into the country again. The Atlas is so close to Marrakech, it must be a stunning view in winter when snow covered. The road up to Oukameiden gives great views of the plains below.

  From there is a stunning piste down to Asti, which for the first time I record on video. A brief review is promising but by time is is downloaded on the Ipad it is no longer viewable – i hope it will work when downloaded to PC. Asti probably is most notable for housing Sir Richard Branson’s Moroccan retreat, as he likes to point out on a brass plate Outside. I guess he wants you to know that he has others (as he does, since he owns an island somewhere). I like self-made men compared to those born into their privileges, however in a country so poor and with such limited resources (especially water) it appears like conspicuous overkill.

The same road leads to Imlill, the base for Toubkal ascents, and I travel there in the hope of being able to finally find the piste that is on my map as a shortcut past toubkal towards Quarzazate, as Katherine and I had already tried from the south. However, the local guides shatter my hopes, unless I can change the BMW from 100 horsepower to 1 set of donkey legs. Again a nice conversation with the guides over a lunch time tajine enforces my positive experience of Morocco and it’s people, if you can look past the permanent pestering hustling…

So south again it is on the pass Katherine and I skipped in order to avoid adventure points (I.e. not finding a location for a tent, safety, thin camping mattresses – of which only one was actually working…).

There is a beautiful lake there and I wonder why Mr Branson did not build his castle there, but maybe he has another one on one of the lakes of Switzerland (in the meantime I have learnt it is on Lago di Como)… As sun sets I struggle to find a spot for my tent, and those that I find are either already taken or I cannot get my bike up the steep sandy incline towards an old dilapidated house. So as sun sets I find a camping location but get convinced that a room with breakfast. It is a beautiful evening as the view if the plains 1000 meters below is complemented by a beautiful sunset, an almost full moon, and a strong wind of 30 degrees.

Any pantheist’s enshallah! The guy runs a generator for electricity and warm water, as well as pumping water from a source 100 meters below into a reservoir above the building. So appreciate a working toilet, a hot shower all the more, and spend the evening with candlelight, enshallah.