Day 62 Ait Marghad
This morning we woke after having a comfortable night as we were kept warm by our heating. We had been invited to breakfast with the family and Rkia served scrambled eggs and homemade bread washed down with Moroccon tea. Marwa didn\’t need to start school today until lunchtime as she was attending the afternoon session.
Moha asked if we would like to see some of the nearby villages so this morning we all jumped in the van, except Rkia and the baby, and he proceeded to guide and narrate our journey. We started to realise how things worked like schooling, Administration etc. On the journey the police flagged us down and explained to Moha that the road from M\’smerir to the adjacent gorge was blocked by snow.
On arriving back at their home Rkia had prepared a lamb Tagine and once again we all sat around and shared this fine meal. It was delicious… she is a fine cook and she works in difficult circumstances to us Europeans. Tremendous !!
In the afternoon we needed to take Moha to nearby M\’smerir which is 7km away. This time we all got in the van except Marwa who had gone to school. It was a new experience for Rkia to travel in our van. On our return Moha wanted to travel the road the police had warned us about yesterday. It was a fairly recently developed road but as we got further along we came across more snow which had not thawed because the rocks were shielding it from the sun. After sometime we decided to turn around and go back down. However, I got the van stuck in 9 inches of snow and we couldn\’t move forward or backward. Moha, Rkia and Tina set to and gathered stone from the side of the road and tried laying a pathway for the tyres. At first this was unsuccessful as we only moved a few inches. Moha was only wearing slippers and his feet were getting soaked. After maybe 30 minutes a VW camper came upon us as they were descending. Fortunately they carried a shovel and snow boards which he helped to place under the wheels. Rkia was amazing at clearing snow with the shovel.
It dawned on me to use the hydraulic levelling to raise the front of the van so as to get the boards under the tyres. Moha, Rkia and Michael (the German driver of the VW) worked tirelessly. But each time we moved a little but was still unable to get free. It must have been on the fifth attempt before the pushing from the back and the side of th van brought success.
At this point we only had 15 minutes to get back home before Marwa came out of school at 6:30 pm. What an adventure!! Moha invited Michael and his wife Bernadette to join us all for an evening meal. They followed us back to the property and have tea with us all. After about an hour they decided they wouldn\’t stay but would drive down the mountain to where it wasn\’t quite so cold.
Rkia cooked CousCous with chicken and vegetables for our evening meal. She also served Tina and I some more Parsnip soup that she had made yesterday and we both commented how delicious it was. All I need now is for Tina to be able to replicate the recipe and I would be delighted. After our shared meal we retired to the van only then to realise that our LPG had run out and we were not able to run the heating…. it was going to be a cold night.