We returned to the annoying main street, where speedy cars competed to come closer to us at their highest speeds. However, it wasn’t long before we took the turn before Tighassaline, where the traffic eased a bit, and the mountain climbing began. I probably caught a cold after the storm and got soaked in water. It’s always fresh at night and early morning and very hot during the day.

People are as usually active and present everywhere from the early morning. Wherever you look in the wild, you’ll always find someone walking or working in the fields.

It’s amazing how just a few meters off the main road, life is totally different. People in the mountains, mostly families, live together in small villages with a few houses, all related to each other. They make their own bread, milk, and cheese.

After cycling for 4 hours, we had only managed to cover 39 km because we climbed 1,100 m. We gave up on reaching Boumia and took a break in front of the mosque. I was feeling cold. A woman wanted to invite us for tea, but we told her we wanted to continue cycling after resting. Then another woman came and invited us to her home; she had a baby on her back.

This was the first time we had been invited by a woman. We decided to stay for the night. She took us to her home and introduced us to her sister, who took care of us and showed us around. They are almost 80% self-sufficient, with apple trees at the peak of the mountain.

In Amazigh (Berber) villages, women are more open and greet more. Normally in Morocco, everything is done by men. We had a small snack and took a walk on the mountain to see the sunset. Kids were playing football, and I joined them—it was a beautiful moment of joy.

In the evening, the Moukadam came, took a photo of our passports, and left. The brother, who had migrated to Spain a few years ago, came back and had dinner with us, mostly speaking Spanish, even though we explained that we are from Germany and speak German, English, and Standard Arabic. “Sí, sí” was his response, so we gave up on correcting him.

They wanted to give us one of their rooms, but we insisted on sleeping in the open area. We had a good night’s sleep under three heavy Berber blankets. The moon was full.

For many days, we have been above 2000 m in altitude, and this is how we’ve been waking up lately: cold in the morning, around 6 to 9 degrees, and hot at midday, around 30 degrees. The mountains are beautiful, and we are now heading to Merzouga and the desert.

This Mask I got from the Finnland journey is really handful.

We had to take a break to seek shelter from the heat, and the cats found shade under our bikes.
on the way to the High Atlas mountains saying last goodbyes to the middle atlas mountains ….

On the way to Boumia, there was a stretch of nothing on the road except for a factory where we stopped to ask for water. Abdulaziz came out, gave us filtered water, and invited us inside for a tour of the apple sorting factory. The apples come from the villages around, getting sorted and stored in huge fridges or sold directly.
abdulaziz was very proud showing how he managed to deal with everything alone in the factory.

Abdulaziz insisted that we stay he wanted to host us, so we decided to stay. he called the owner of the factory to tell him if it’s ok that we sleep in the empty room.
the owner didn’t agree and Abdulaziz invited us to his own old house.
this was a house in the middle of nowhere without electricity and running water.
just with solar panels that charge a battery to power one lamp.
the mother where ashamed of her house.

the wind was blowing heavy but we had really one of the best night sleeps.