The day starts in relaxed fashion with leisurely breakfast,  writing the notes of the past two intense days and working through the myriad of impressions, sensations and thoughts. My body is tired, but I want to press on. A visit to the pharmacy follows and somehow the pharmacist and me manage to establish with lots of gestures what I am looking for – “non” but after diarrhoea –  and the content resembles the ingredients of the dehydration sachets I had brought with me. With new supplies including pens for the kids and honey for the guardian of la boutique (when Katherine and I slept there we learnt it was very expensive), I set out the climb from N’Kob to Jebel Sarhro.

The piste is rock and stone, testing not only suspension, but the steel radial in the tyres as well as the drive train. Again the BMW just keeps rolling along, much more at ease than the exhausted rider. At some otherwise arcane point on the road apart from the gravel surface, the front wheel twists and digs into the gravel, consequence my right foot caught under the pannier, I guess it is a good 100kg, perhaps more. As soon as I am able to free myself, there is a friendly Berber at hand to help right the bike (and I have really come to appreciate the help).

As if a mid-mountain get-together, two Spaniards come towards us on bicycles. Knowing the steep rocky pass ahead, they must have had a rough ride! It is a real pity that the berbers are so camera shy, they are so photogenic – the old, the graceful, the wild, the wise, the beautiful, the genetically challenged, it is all there but cannot be respectfully captured without building a lot of rapport in a very time consuming manner. It is said that time is what Moroccans have a lot of, perhaps I get my chances (in addition to my Berber family).

At the top of the mountain is Tizi-n Tazazert I stop to show the boy who had sold me a knife for not a small sum (that subsequently separated blade from shaft) how to fix it properly using steel wire. I also show him photos and video’s on the iPad. The speed of learning of this boy is incredible, or perhaps he was part of the Apple development team for intuitive control design!… I am told he goes to school, anything else would be a pity for such a bright kid. And if he is bright, his little sister scores full points on curiosity!

Across the mountain and looking for the small river that Katherine and I had come across, I find it reduced to a mere trickle. There you have it, sometimes there is water, sometimes there isn’t. Enshallah. Arriving at la boutique I meet the guardian who understandably takes some time to recognize his previous visitor, this time in full metal jacket (OK, bike outfit and helmet) and is visibly happy at the gift.

This time I set up camp with the tent, am invited for coffee and briefly rattle some berber girls because I ask if the fruit of the tree they are sitting under are edible and eat one of them. Tonight I am treated to a bright full moon lighting up the valley, a pleasant temperature, a light wind and complete silence – in short a tranquil serenity.