Scratching my head to think what I have been doing for the last couple of weeks..... and haven't really come up with anything. It has been busy time work-wise.
Ruby is all healed up and has a neat little scar on her belly. We also noticed that she only has 7 nipples!
Lets see.... I went back and climbed up through Scorpion Rocks.... no sting this time. Yes I did spend a few minutes throwing stones at the rocks before I climbed on to them.
Here is a photo of how it looks from the top.
We also had an amazing sunset .... but in the East - not sure what was causing this, some sort of reflection of the true sunset. Whatever it was very spectacular.
Marmela has come for a couple of longer walks.... I have been taking her lead and harness with me as I got fed up of just having to do short walks. So she had been dragged and carried up to the Red Kasbah and also round River Island.... since the last long walk she hasn't been hanging round to go out with us! Today Honey came instead. There is no way that Honey would be carried or harnessed but she did keep up with us, and today was just a little walk after yesterday's epic walk to the edge of the known universe.
I have been eyeing the mountain opposite us for about a year now... and building up to the climb, but I also have been a little reluctant to do it. I think I might have had a subconscious superstitious feeling about climbing it because from our little valley it is the edge of the world, even though I know (I see every time I drive into Agadir) that there is just another hill on the other side. But it may just have been that I wasn't sure how fit I was for it! Anyway yesterday seemed right to do it so off we went - just Ruby and I.
We went round the back of Castle Hill and headed up the White Track which I have been along before. We went past the two tower rocks and then the path just disappeared. I don't know where it went, possibly damaged by the rain we have had. I did find lots of really pretty little fossil cockle shells, some with a little hint of mother of pearl. Eventually had to stop picking them up as my pockets were getting full. After clawing my way up what seemed like a river bed for a while I decided to head across the hill to where I could see the blue sky through the branches of the Argan trees and ended up on a shoulder between a little promontory and the mountain proper. I found a circle of stones where it seems people have been cooking but no sign of a track going up to the house... in fact from the shoulder there was no sign of the house - just scree and rocks above us! Anyway I set off, following Ruby up the scree and a couple of short rock climbs (big holds, quite safe Honestly) I pulled myself up onto the ridge just at the walls of the house.
So I did feel a little bit like the bear that climbed the mountain to see what it would see... there was the other side of the mountain... and not far below us another house or group of houses. The house on the hill seems just like a normal moroccan house - 3 rooms and a roofed shelter for the donkeys in the middle and what looked like a well (though I didn't open it up to look). I had expected something more like a shrine as Mohamed had said the house had been built to commemorate some old wise man who had died.... I think that story may be missing some detail.
There were obvious signs that Moroccans had been around recently ie the usual lack of regard when disposing of their rubbish :( However the views were amazing - even though it was quite hazy. I could see the sea as a shimmering greyness over to the West and Taazhout looked a bit like Machu Pichu.... and yes I could see our house!
(I am trying to post more photos .... but internet not cooperating - I will try again later)
We had a short rest (sorry I had a short rest, Ruby ran up and down exploring), and then set off down the hill. As I had been scrambling up I had thought "well at least from the top I will find the path down easily" but once again the path that I thought I should follow just disappeared into a sort of alpine meadow and I couldn't find anything other than cliffs on the way back down into our valley.
So I ended up walking down the wrong side of the mountain and after a lot of zig-zagging slowly down a quite thickly wooded and steep slope I finally slid (on my bottom) down into a, mostly dry, river. We followed the river bed downstream a few hundred yards and found ourselves at the fresh water spring. So it was just a case of hiking back along the road.... feeling absolutely exhausted and as if my feet had been in my boots for at least two hours longer than they should have been.
Apart from Ruby and some ground squirrels she was chasing I did not see much in the way of wildlife... I had hoped to get a closer view of the eagles I have seen circling the skies but no luck!
When I look back up at it from our house I do wonder how I managed to get up the little cliff faces but most of all I wonder where the path is!
