A MOUNTAIN FULL OF PEOPLE

Coming back is for us a life philosophy. We like to call by name each person we meet, in fact we don’t take pictures randomly as in each portrait there’s the story of a person and of the place he belongs to. Coming back also means recover and return something to someone who’s never been afraid of welcoming you in his house.
Each year we travel new paths, make new experiences and it’s becoming really hard to go back to each person we met. When travelling we enter in a different dimension, we enter in people’s hearts with free minds and the energy of mutual curiosity.
We often feel like a light pencil that draws a map of new trajectories, full of precious identities who are ready to witness the beauty and the fragility of the remote places we travel through.
Coming back is not always easy, but the commitment is to get accepted, because little by little you are not a guest anymore, but a friend, a family member who has just been away for a while.

«We didn’t warn Mhtar about our return and we didn’t know he had a phone hidden in his burnus, the typical Berber dress faded by the sun of the High Atlas. We came back to his douar taken for granted he was there. We know the road very well and the only difference since last year is the colour of the vegetation».

The valleys we crossed are full of villages and in each douar we are told to be careful from who inhabits the next one. Luckily at every stop we find only nice people, willing to talk or busy in their work even if they are ready to drop everything to drag us inside the house, share a glass of tea, a meal or even host us for the night.
The biggest wonder comes not only from the smiles and the kindness which we are welcomed with from time to time, but above all by the fact that the more we venture into the valleys, the more we discover that the villages are populated, colorful, and plenty of people, children, young men and women and a fully organized daily schedule that we did not expect to find.

The villages are located in unexpected places, every green space is cultivated, and young people help the elderly, not only in the household chores but also in the agriculture.
Here on the Atlas it’s impossible to be alone, even when we try to put the tent in seemingly isolated places. The shepherds would present us by name every single goat, French teachers can’t wait to have a talk, women cook delicious dishes and reveal the recipes to Glorija.

We hike about 30km a day on more or less evident roads and paths. You have to be good at interpreting the trace on the red terrain, but also on dark rocks and there are constant crossings of streams and creeks.
The water pours, leaps and flows in large amount on all sides. On the north the snow reflects the sunbeams, and day by day our winter skin begins to color under the strong springy sun.

NB: There are no specific maps of this area, for detailed informations please write to our e-mail: [email protected]