The Atlas Mountains – Adventures in Transit

I had the most beautiful, scenic drive up into the mountains

Passing many little Berber villages where groups of children ran after the van cheering

And houses are still built in the traditional way with natural materials

There were road side tagines, each cooked on their own little fire beneath

And people excitedly showed me huge, complete crystals

I parked for a couple of nights at a guest house in the Ouirgane valley where I was well looked after with many complimentary mint teas and homemade cakes

I went on a hike through the valley, enjoying seeing so many green trees again

Then I drove further up the mountains to another guest house nearly 2000m above sea level

Temperatutes dropped below 10°c after sunset so the owners invited me in to sit by the fire and gave me warm soup and a Berber omlette

I went on a hike to reach a summit, 2510m above sea level

The views were amazing

The next day I was treated to a traditional Moroccan breakfast

And was joined by these two boys from Poland

They are on a crazy cycle adventure through Africa

The guest house was right at the top of the Tizi N’Test pass

Said to be one of the scariest roads in the world

Driving down it was a thrill and one of my favourite parts of my trip so far

I stopped half way for some mint tea

Admired the views

And marveled at the mountain goats

I bought some raw honey from a bee keeping family

And gave ‘Poppa’ a lift to the next village to see his family

I also picked up Youseff, who I saw walking down the dangerous TiziNTest pass

He is a maths teacher at a school in the mountains and was heading home for the school holidays. It was interesting to compare stories of teaching and the teaching systems of England and Morocco. In Morocco, teachers don’t have a choice about which school they work at, you’re placed there by the government -because Youseff’s school is so remote he has to live there during term time and only gets to go home in the holidays. He teaches 15 to 18 year olds and it was nice to hear that there is an even mix of boys and girls staying in education until this age. However, the majority of families in the mountains pull their children out before this age due to their economic situation.