The instinct is always to keep pushing on when travelling by bicycle, but aside from the need to rest from time to time it is always good for me to occasionally stop for a bit longer. I stopped here in Agdz for an extra day, in part because yesterday, with the adrenalin of the last few days gone, I felt so utterly drained that I barely stirred from my shady alcove in the courtyard of the kasbah… I had music, I had stuff to read and a need for sleep so there was no need. Also in part because I have been made so very welcome in the village here.
Always when I travel by bicycle I find that when I stop and make the time for a place, to relax into it then it will always make some time for me if that makes any sense. Having spent a fun (and funny) evening of ‘cultural exchange’ with a couple of chaps who insisted they were sober, but, amusingly for a nation in which alcohol is generally prohibited, clearly were not entirely judging by the sweet smell of alcohol and the conversation, this morning I bumped into a local schoolteacher. We drank tea and he invited me to lunch with his lovely family at his home in the artfully crumbly old part of town. Happily Mjid had set no arithmetic tests in Arabic in order to earn my lunch of delicious skewers of spiced dried meat and flatbread, instead conversation ranged over everything from the 7 year drought here that ended just two weeks ago, through Imperial Russia to Eskimos. Somehow.
Anyway as I’m back on the road tomorrow, ensha’llah, I thought I would throw up a quick post now while I have the opportunity, it’ll mean less work for the next one, whenever that happens to be… think of this one as bonus material :-) The intense heat, and it really is today, and fatigue generally mean I haven’t really done much as far as pictures go… but here are a few snaps that hopefully will give a little flavour of the place….
Great photos Mike