Day 226
2 hrs, 3 kms

If I had just gone back the way I came after I climbed Toubkal, it would've been a quick five hour trip to get back to Casablanca . Now that I'm on the wrong side of the mountains, it's an unpredictable trip that could take me from 12 to 20 hours--and I have to be back at work tomorrow, so I'd better not waste a lot of time. I'd really like to continue exploring this valley all the way to the end, but that's not going to happen on this trip. In fact, it's not going to happen for a long, long time, as I'll be leaving Morocco permenantly in a few weeks.

Now I have another very good reason to come back here someday though.

I will get a quick start on exploring the valley. I've got to hike 7 or 8 kilometers down the road to catch collective transport to the main highway anyways, so I might as well add a couple more villages along the way. So early in the morning I'm off on my way.

This village where I stayed the night is the beginning of a 72 kilometer desert river civilization following a narrow valley all the way to Aoulouz, where it joins the Souss River, one of most important regions of Southern Morocco . Of course there are similarities to the other desert river civilizations I've followed... the Draa River, Oued Melh to Ouarzazate, Dades, Amzrit, Ziz... But each one does have something unique and new to discover.

This civilization which I'll call the Aoulouz River Civilization has several special characteristics. One is the amazing irrigation system. Rather then limiting themselves to cultivating the narrow valley floor, the people here have cut away terraces high up the steep mountainsides, and worked a system of canals to reach these terraces, using just gravity. Yesterday I say a beautiful, high waterfall and figured it'd be a nice place for a videoclip, but when I reached it the waterfall had disappeared! It turns out it was just a canal high above that had its lock opened and closed.

The second interesting thing about the Aoulouz region is the way the houses are designed. They're made out of earth, as is typical in all the Atlas mountain civilizations, but these have something different: on the upper floors there's a wide open room, with a roof, but no wall in front, making it visible to anyone passing. It looks like it's an area for hanging up clothes etc.

What intrigues my about this is that typically Moroccan homes are very private. People don't want anyone outside seeing inside. It's deeply rooted in the culture. In some areas the houses are built around a sunlit courtyard with no windows facing the outside. But here people don't seem to mind outsiders being able to observe them in their mundane daily tasks. Is there a deeper meaning to this? I'm not sure. Later I ask a colleague who is fromt his area, but he's not able to answer.