The Atlas Mountains……….

……home of the Berbers extends through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia separating these countries from the Sahara Desert.
We were lucky enough to have a driver who was a Berber and the day we visited he took us to a weekly Berber Market. This market has been held every Monday ‘forever’ and the men come from villages up to 30km away on donkey, carrying their goods for sale in panniers. The donkeys are all parked in a ‘donkey parking area’. Everything you can imagine is for sale……….chickens (killed and plucked while you wait!)…….veg…….grains…….you can have a weekly shave and hair cut ……and of course the inevitable Chinese plastic goods, which do appear quite incongruous alongside sheep, cows heads and other Berber cultural delicacies.
The villages dotted throughout the mountains are spectacular, dramatically perched above valleys and mountain streams. We visited a typical Berber house where they continue to mill grain in the traditional way. The family were eating lunch cooked in the kitchen shown. Berber women will not be photographed. The kitchen has running water diverted from the mill, trickling through the room and out again into the main river….. most practical.
With a guide we trekked up to a waterfall in the mountains and all the way up were little groups of artisans. We saw young men digging for fossils and rocks containing crystals – we bought a black rock, which comes apart revealing amethyst crystals, it’s extraordinary. We also bought another fossil which took our fancy. Negotiating for a good price when you have absolutely no idea of something’s value is hilarious and we found the traders in Morocco good humoured and really fun to deal with. Goodness knows what we’ve bought!!!!
We would have liked to have stayed for days in the mountains……….wish you were there………..xxxxx