For the first time this trip, we awaken to find ice on the inside of the windows! So much for following the sun!! Still, think positive, it will prepare us for back home.
The Gorges du Dades was fabulous, we have missed out on other gorges earlier in our trip but not this one. It really was a cracker! Hairpins and switchbacks take us up and then down, deep down to the river below. Each side of us tower the massive orange walls. From the high view points we see rough dwellings clinging to the rock sides, with little visible means of support. Not for the first time since being in Morocco, we are transported back to a similar scene in Pakistan.
Out of the gorge and on to the pass. The single track is dirt and rock. Will we get through? It is very rough and this is apparently the good side. Once we reach Agoudal, if we do, it is reportedly worse. Some way short of that village, we meet two motorcyclists coming toward us. We stop to ask them about the road ahead. They have had to turn back, the first snow drift is passable but not the second one they say. It is nearing lunchtime, so we decide to drive as far as the snow line have lunch and then back track.
Fay has on board as much fuel as she can hold, we knew there would be no fuel until we reach the main road, we have enough for that distance. However, there is a point at which we have to be sure we can get through, or else, turn back. Fay doesn't have capacity, even with her new big tank, to carry enough fuel to almost make it and then have to go all the way back. At the "make your mind up" spot, we still haven't reached the snow but it was a good place to stop. No sooner was the kettle on, than an old man on a moped pulled up behind us, coming from the direction of the snow. He spoke no English but we understood that he had come through the drifts but that the snow was half way up his bike! Had the young German bikers been too wide, with their panniers to get through, or was it simply that they lacked the years of experience of this old man and his simple bike?
To dispel my previous thoughts as to the motivation of Moroccans, he asks for nothing, tries to sell us nothing; instead he offers to share his bread with us. How to feel guilty, in 3 seconds flat!
As we pack up, a vehicle carrying Japanese tourists passes by. They speak good English and confirm what the old man was telling us, it is impassable, they too are retracing their tracks. We knew today was a gamble and, yes, we have lost a days progress but it was far from a day wasted. The scenery has been spectacular.
Mon 5th Jan
Back through the Dades Gorge, the magnificent rock faces take on more of a butterscotch look before the suns rays finally penetrate the gorge and turn butterscotch to barley sugar. In the river, at the bottom of gorge, women with red, chapped hands do their washing in the icy water.
Once on the main highway, we make good time and reach El Rachida by mid day. Not long after lunch we pass through the Ziz Gorge but it is not a patch on the Dades. On this good road, we have probably reached Midelft in the same timer as the pass road would have taken. We both agree that since Christmas, we have seen what is for us, the best of Morocco: the desert, the mountains and the gorges.
Left on our list of places to see before we go: Fez and Chefchouan, then back to Tangier and the ferry to Spain. When we left Turkey we weren't ready to return to Europe but now as the pull of family and friends increases; the thought of Euroland isn't so bad this time.
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