3 hrs, 5.0 kms



I get up the hill fairly quickly, creating shorcuts straight up the mountainside rather than following the road . Soon I'm entering a narrow gorge, where I can hear a stream far below. I still haven’t done my official Idougidnif concert, so when I reach a little clearing with a nice view, I sit down in the shade for my first strum session of the day. I’ve got a lot of songs that I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks that need to be "released’, park bench style, and this seems like a perfect place to do it, joining my voice with the sounds of undisturbed nature.

On up the road, there’s another massive butte, towering high above the gorge. But this one has a village at the bottom, not at the top, houses and a mosque scattered on the steep hillside. Then down across on the other side of the gorge is another little cluster of large villas.

What I don’t see are people. It seems like these are mainly summer homes, and the residents of this village have all gone to the big cities, made money, and come back to build big houses that they only visit on vacation.

As I find out later, it was several decades ago, there was a period of severe drought, and people from this region (within 150 km or so radius from Tafraoute) were forced to go to the cities—or starve . There it seems they found that by being very frugal, working together and using good business sense they were able to not only survive, but prosper. Eventually the men took their wives and children to the cities to join them, and now pretty much all that’s left in these villages are the large houses that they’ve built. Just a few people still live here, cultivating the land.

Once again, I have a mixture of feelings. On one hand happy for these people at having been able to prosper and improve their lives, but on the other hand, it’s kind of sad to see a noble culture and a diligent way of life—difficult as it was—disappearing. I know Tafroute folks try to preserve distinct aspects of their culture even in the city, but who knows if they’ll be able to.

It’s interesting how a little rain can change the way you look at the world around you. Three weeks ago, Tafroute region was bone dry. Now, they’ve gotten some serious rain and, although vegetation is sparse, it’s green. Back then I had the feeling “there’s no way people can live off this land"… now I look around and think “living off this land is difficult, but doable”. Of course, rain is notoriously unpredictable in these parts meaning some years living off the land is simply impossible.