Summertime: Aguelmam Afenourir

This road is marked on the map as being paved ! Mmm It seems the map is a bit out of date. Still, it is a fine route we take this day, bound for Aguelmam Afenourir or Lake Afenourir. High up on the plateau with Cedar trees surrounding open volcanic plains, wild monkeys roaming the forest. In fact, the opening scenes to David Attenborough's series on Africa were filmed here ! Stop name dropping there Ted !

But the real experience of seeing one's first monkeys, makes one whisper 'a la David'. Because there they are, in the trees. They seem nervous of us but stay close enough to keep an eye on us from their positions of safety, in the trees.

Looking attentively.

The atmosphere is delicious.

The smells and sounds. The stillness broken by the crack of a branch as a monkey tests the strength. Magic.

In other parts of the forest, tourists have hand fed troups with sweets etc, to the point that the tame macaques will steal from your bag or anything else they can get their hands on. Peanut sellers await the tourists to sell bags of nuts to feed the overfed attractions. I watched a young monkey steal a bag from a seller while he was hawking his wares. His nerve was met with a torrent of stones and anger. It's tough business here.

To us, our meeting seems natural and very exciting. Wild animals wary of us, digging in the forest floor for food while keeping an eye on us.

And then they are gone. No interest in us. They have their own business to attend to.

As do we, so on we drive on the ever deteriorating road, which turns to true track three kms before the lake. And what a lake. Out in the middle of a plateau, surrounded by hills. Shepherds guarding their large flocks of sheep in this other worldly plain.

Black stones litter the lakeside. Volcano comes to mind.

But on our mind is first a picnic ! It's lunch time and what a place to eat. I'm too excited to notice the lovely foodstuffs Krysia has prepared. I get like that. I'm amazed at where I am. Calm down Ted. Eat your lunch and go for a walk. Let Krysia get on with a drawing. She is much more relaxed at where we are.

So I leave her on an isolated point, where she happily gets involved with absorbing the surroundings and putting her ipad to good use.

While I get on with a bit of wildlife photography

These flapwings take off as soon as I approach.

This shot captures flight patterns worth exploring.

And off they go, circling around me to land further away ! Beautiful in their flight. Beautiful.

With lunch over and Ted nice and relaxed, we head off, off piste, over the hills to find our way to the nearest town on the map. Passing stone dwellings set into the hillside, reminding us of this harsh environment, hot summers, cold winters. The Beni M'Guid tribe, still nomads, work and live in these high plateaus. Tending their flocks, they wave as we trundle by, two's up on our trusty Yamaha.

The track soon hoiks up into the trees, serious off roading now. Take your time Ted. This is no place for a spill. But oh so beautiful. The Ceders are different here, more sparse. The track levels out and all goes well.

A dead old timer catches our eye, standing proudly. Waiting for time to take it down. We stop and wander. Take in this place. Leave the bike for a while and listen to the quiet, which is not quiet at all. Birdsong. Insect life. Breath it in.

On we push, the track changes in an instant, passing this tree and hold on now, its getting tough, small bolders instead of stones, don't want to loose it out here. Phew, too tough for two's up, so Krysia gets off and I take on the descent on my own.

And I make it ! Just. Next time, I'll get off as well and walk the bike down a similar tricky bit.

Always learning. Next time. Stop, get off and have a good look at the obstacle before taking it on. Next time.

But all is well and we carefully wend our way accross this even more isolated plain, still seeing shepherds out in the full sun, guarding their flocks. Even waving and touching their hearts as we pass. What an adventure. What a place to find ourselves in.