 |
| Village children |
Happy birthday to my lovely lad, Aaron's 23 today.
A fair bit of driving today, to get to our stop for the night, Medelt, a village in Apple Valley, on a huge plateau between the mid- and high Atlas Mountains.
Our first stop was in a beautiful town called Iffram, also known as Switzerland of Morocco. It's a town where richer people have their summer houses as generally the temperatures are considerably lower than in nearby Fes. Everything is beautifully manicured and irrigated, so lush and green. A refreshing change from the cities we've visited so far. We only stopped for a coffee and to get supplies for a picnic, which we had at a lovely little stream. Then on with the drive, had Kathryn from Berlin next to me, and we had some lovely chats, so time went fast. We did stop and saw Barbary Apes (from Gibraltar) with babies, so cute.
 |
| Barbary Apes |
We got to our town and accommodation for the night early, so there was time for a swim, such luxury, then after that a walk in the country to see a local Berber village and apple orchard.
 |
| Coming into the village |
Great to stretch the legs, the weather was perfect and Abdulah our guide told us about the
hierarchy of a Berber village; Irrigation man, Mayor, Government representative, Call to Prayer man and calling the prayer man. These are all considered very important positions. The visit to the village was certainly an experience to remember, children following us, wanting to hold our hand and have their photo taken. As basic as conditions are, people looked happy and somehow...the children knew to swipe my iPad to look at the photos.
 |
| the village |
It felt strange going through, did they consider us an oddity as well, is it respectful for us to visit them to see how they live or do they feel 'on show'?
No comments:
Post a Comment