What a ride

After leaving to traverse the High Atlas Mountains by local bus one hour late little did we know what the next 7 hours would bring us. The bus to Ourzazate from Marrakech normally would take 5 hours. The journey through orange groves and olive trees and palm trees was wonderful especially with brief views of the snow caps of the mountains.

The contrast between the desert we were travelling through the palm trees and the traditional berber housing against the mountain back drop was very unusual. As we neared the we realized why the buildings in Morocco are rendered in pink mud and straw as that is the colour of the foothills we passed through. The bus was nearly full of travellers and locals with a few small children and was interesting listening to conversations in many languages. The scenery and the grandeur of the mountains were incredible. We have never travelled through such high mountain passes before at around 3000m high. The roads had a little snow to start with on the side and there was a lot of excited people including some young Moroccan nationals who had never seen the snow before. Of course the higher we went the thicker and deeper the snow but the roads seemed fine. We stopped along the way at a tiny village for a “wee” stop and some delicious mint tea then onwards and upwards to more and more stunning scenery.

peaks were craggy and the ravines were very steep to say the least. Some parts of the road started to be a little icy when all of a sudden we came to a stop because in front of us was the longest trail of cars and trucks we have ever seen bumper to bumper with no-one moving and there we stayed for 2 hours. I forgot to mention on the way up a little earlier we had seen a petrol tanker hanging off the edge of the ravine as it had jack knifed and was stopped from falling down by the safety rail. It was entertaining to start with as we watched trucks trying to negotiate the bend in front of us as there was only room really for one as the snow was piled up on the sides and was very slippery. As time went on we did not move and thought we would never get out of there and did not know what the problem was as we first thought maybe there was another accident. The tension started to build as we realized we were going to negotiate the same bend and how tricky it was for the driver of the bus. Anyway after trying to concentrate on the awesome beauty of this magnificent mountain range we were relieved when we started to descend from the top. It was amazing and we would not have missed that bus ride for anything but could have been spared the drama. We think it was an avalanche of snow that caused the problem and they had closed the mountain pass and stopped all traffic from both sides which eventually helped the situation. We arrived at our destination tired and with a contact number of a couch surfer host who had contacted us only that morning to say they could host us or find us a home. We were met and taken back to the apartment of Joy and Hakim to find they already had 3 more CSers .Two from Italy and one from Germany. The Italian couple made all of us dinner of pasta and tortilla and very much appreciated by us and after some great conversation over a couple of good reds from Morocco. We were taken to Hakims parents home where we had our own room. How fantastic that was of them to put us up in their home at very short notice and again for tonight as I write this and we awoke to breakfast as well. Hakims’ mother and father live in a very traditional Moroccan home and have wonderful furniture. His father could also speak quite good English so we found out a little more about the Moroccan way of life.