I love the idea of our new ritual of baking bread together before leaving, Moroccan Bread is delicious.
Suad Mobilized the whole family so that we wouldn’t leave without banking bread together and having our bread for the day.

we continued in the direction of Khenifra. The weather was very good, around 26 degrees. Even the animals were more active and present outside in the fields. Seeing the mountains again made us feel alive. We are very careful about the rain because the weather in the mountains is totally unpredictable, and we know from the news and Miloud that many people have died from floods in many(eastern Morocco- Errachidia and Merzouga) places in Morocco.

We saw again the multi-buses (nakel mozdawaj) that transport tons of stuff on top of the buses.

After cycling around 50 km and climbing around 1000 m, the sunset was approaching. We turned right onto a side path to the last road in the village to try to find a place to pitch the tent. Sandra told me that she noticed a car following us since we entered the village. It stopped on the road, and three people got out. One walked towards us and said, “No bicycles after sunset, danger, danger.” I asked him, “Are you the Mukaddam?” (The responsible person for the village)
He said, “Yes, I’m calling the Kaaid.” I talked to the Kaaid and asked him if we could ask a house for permission to pitch the tent. He agreed, and the family inside agreed immediately. They gave us a room and prepared some food for us. The family touched us so much because this was a whole different level of poverty, but still, they offered all they had. They even allowed us to use the kitchen to cook some pasta.

We had an okay sleep because there was an army of ants everywhere at night.

the woman was a hard-working woman, she woke up around 5:30 am and started preparing breakfast for the family then went to bring the goats to the mountains.

I still don’t understand why her son is complaining about not being able to find a job. After talking to many young Moroccan men, I can see their frustration. They often wait for the chance to escape to Europe, thinking it will be their ticket to a better life. They believe that within a month, they could earn enough money to support their families back in Morocco. Because of this, they feel that the effort required for local jobs isn’t worth it.It seems that complaining is more common among men, while women tend to be harder workers. However, I believe the younger generation has the potential to find jobs, as we’ve seen in Rabat and even in small towns.

We’ve almost gotten used to seeing the mountains from afar. In the beginning, we thought it would be impossible. Now we climb an average of 1200m daily, and we’ve developed a mindset of, “Oh yeah, another mountain to cross.” It really makes me think about how crazy human resilience is.
we are 37 years old. We started our journey almost nine months ago, struggling to cross small hills in Ericeira, and now we’re climbing mountains as if we’ve always belonged here.

at one of our first stops, as usual, we asked for water and ended up being invited for tea, which eventually turned into launch. While we were eating, a Moukadam (local civil informant) came to check if everything was alright. We noticed how the locals left quickly when the Moukadam arrived. We told him we were just resting and everything was fine. Ever since the tragic incident where two girls from Norway were killed near the highest mountain in Morocco, the system has been monitoring tourists more closely.

After a good espresso and activation of the berlin Techno music, Sandra was alive again and unbearable.

As we journey deeper into the Middle Atlas, even the dogs seem to get more aggressive.
We reached Oulmes around 6:30 PM, just an hour before sunset. There is no hotels, guest houses, or even a police station where we could pitch our tent. We asked a few locals, but they didn’t seem very motivated to help, so we decided to keep cycling out of the city in search of a spot.

We’ve developed a sense of whether it will be easy or challenging to find a place to sleep, but as the sun sets, it still takes a lot of mental energy when we haven’t found one yet.

15 km after Oulmes, we were still surrounded by barren mountains with no side roads. Then Mohammad stopped his car and came over. I asked if he knew a place where we could camp. He directed us to a path through the rocks, close to his brother’s unfinished house. We pitched the tent there, made Moroccan tea, and invited him to share our pasta. We sat outside, enjoying the view together.

The ground was too hard to fully secure the tent, and the wind was extreme since we were on an open mountain. After the wind finally died down around 3 AM, the dogs began barking nonstop. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep well that night.