After breakfast, we left the innards of Marrakesh through the narrow and low passageways of the old town into the normal streets and headed south towards the snow capped Atlas Mountains.
We knew that we were going to hit 7,000 feet in altitude but it was a sunny day and relatively warm so we thought what could go wrong.
The road from Marrakesh to Taroudent through the Tizi n'Test pass is one of those iconic mountain roads with innumerable curves, elevation changes, switchbacks, great views of snow capped mountains, valleys, oasis, rivers ... and it did not disappoint.
Temperatures eventually dropped to 31 degrees ... but it was sunny with a beautiful deep blue sky and nature at its best ... so we were smiling .... even when ice, slush, and snow were lurking at every turn.
Roads and days like these remind me how for me riding a motorcycle has always been the easiest way to find myself in the zone, to get in the flow ... when time stops, and everything just is ... and it is there, and you are flowing though it, and also you are part of it ... and when you realize you are there, you try to stay in it for as long as you can because you feel that the answers for everything are within reach ... purpose, meaning, destiny, the whole, the parts, the connections, your ikigai ... so close.
The road also had many sections under repair ... rock slides, broken bridges, dirt, mud ... a challenging but joyful day. At one point we had to wait for about an hour for the road to be cleared of rocks by two hardworking bulldozers. One of the road workers had a fire going ... so I sat next to the fire and waited ... not too bad.
After the summit, we started descending and the temperature eventually got up to 60 ... time to shed layers ... and a nice stop in the middle of nowhere for cafe au lait before the last section.
Taroudant is an impressive city ... they called the little Marrakesh ... the best part, is that this is a real, working, operating, normal, Moroccan city ... no tourists, no hard selling, no souvenirs (maybe a few crafts).
The city is surrounded by 7km of mud-brick walls still standing. Apparently, it started as an ancient Berber settlement ... the walls were built in 1500 to defend the city and to control the Saharan trade from sub-saharan Africa to Marrakesh ... it now feels like we are really at the gates of the Sahara.
We walked around the town ... had some coffee, went to the market, and watched life go by in a regular Moroccan city ... lot of commerce (fruits, vegetables, meats, breads, spices), schools ending their day and children everywhere with their moms. horse drawn carriage taxis, lots of bicycles and mopeds. Like watching a movie of real life in a world far far away ... mesmerizing.
At the hotel, we met Heike, and her two older children, Lena and Lars, from Germany who were also staying here and had a nice chat, by the fire in the main room downstairs, about life, travels, hobbies, entrepreneurship, Berlin, Guatemala, and many other things ... unfortunately, we still did not manage to fix the world.
Dinner was the best so far for this trip ... wow! Tomorrow, we head into the desert and the long stretches of sand.
What a beautiful reflection of the road and Taroudant. It was a real pleasure meeting you and sharing stories for a while (even if we didn’t quite fix the world). Safe travels into the desert!
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