LOW HORIZONS: ON THE ROAD part 2

Our trip to the mountains was quite amazing. The m9 took us from the bustling and noisy city out into the flatlands .The roadside inhabited with one horse villages where residents of the surrounding area would come to buy, sell and trade . The Tourist Trade still prevelant wherever you turn to look rugs, lanterns, tagines!. The highway littered with battered Toyota's loaded with contraband , mopeds overloaded with "stuff", pushbikes and mothers and children sitting. With the sky a beautiful blue overhead the Atlas Mountains ,covered in snow, beckoned invitingly . Deep inside you knew you would only be able to touch their toenails such was their magnitude. But you could feel the ancient power and majesty. The sun was high now and the world, my new world, alive. I could feel the cobwebs of my mind loosening.

At the foothills of the Atlas Mountain we disembarked to explore the lower regions of the area and visit a series of waterfalls . To give some idea of the scale of the mountains the furthest of the seven waterfalls was a four day trek. Even in these lower regions the air was clear and fresh and the silence often broken by the cry of a hawk but little else. I tried to imagine a four day trek and as we passed a local gentleman sitting by the track(he looked up from under his hood and smiled at me ) I wondered "what does he think about all day". Traditional Moroccans do a lot of "sitting" it seems. But four days into the mountains ? I wonder what that is like? Somehow without trying , even in such a short time , my soul soaked up the colours , smells, and vastness of the place I had dreamed of visiting. One impression I understood was that out here although they have phones and television etc. the mountain people would exist quite happily while the West just runs itself into the ground. I think its easy to romaticize and I am trying not to paint the wrong picture- there is much that is hard for Westerners to cope with in Morocco but there is a Spirit of Place to experience if you are able to sidestep all the rubbish that is thrust in your face . We do exactly the same here !!! The mountains , the air , the light , the colours , the sense of something ancient ! These are the memories that have buried themselves in my soul.