Today we head off an off-road adventure through the anti atlas mountain range to Tamsahelte. We are travelling along tiny roads that wind through the mountains. They are not paved and are just smoothed by trucks. There was very little room to pass other cars, and at times the drop off the edge was terrifyingly close to the car. The views were very dramatic.
We stopped for a break at a small house at the top of a mountain and Addison was able to buy herself two nice rocks. Not fossils but she was still happy with them.
We were amazed again at the ingenuity of the local Berber people, who have to clear away so many stones before they can do anything. The houses are built if Rick, the fences are rock, even the soccer field is still covered in rock. It must’ve a task they have to do before every game - go pick up the rocks before they play.
We arrived later afternoon at our accommodation which was a simple Bedouin Kasbah made of mud and straw. After dropping off our stuff we went for a walk among the irrigated fields. It was nteresting to see how different things are when you don’t have machinery to do all the work. The people have to clear the rocks (or At least the big ones) , then they have to use tools to break up the soil and create paddocks. They have to use local products (manure) to improve the soil, and then they can create furrows where they will plant the produce. After that they have to hope the plants will grow - but they have small irrigation channels which provide water from the local river for their crops. There are no shops in this town, so they must survive on what they grow or can trade. We managed to get ourselves a little lost, but always within sight of our accommodation which is high on a hill. The local children thought we were hilarious and followed us around to see what we were doing - just trying to stretch our legs after a day in the car.
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