Safe Return Doubtful

Having reached the mountains on Thursday I followed the road along the Ziz river. The driving changed dramatically, from the wide horizons of stone desert with little in the way of tourist infrastructure, to spectacular scenery, more affluent towns and consequently, more visitors. The first such town was Midelt in the northeast of the High Atlas. I stopped there to stock up at Marjane supermarket, more of the sort of store you would expect in Europe; previously the towns had offered smaller shops dedicated to selling just one type of groceries, chicken, bread, tinned food, for example. 

I drove on to a campsite in the main Ziz gorge which was an Auberge, offering food and a couple of rooms, as well as two places for campervans. The hospitality was excellent, though the weather up at the altitude now of 1200 metres, cloudy and not warm, at 6C. There was a Swiss family in their van also, away for a year, while homeschooling their three children, aged 7, 4 and 2. They wanted me to give an English lesson, as I had stupidly disclosed that I had been a teacher. I sptalked to them briefly and made my excuses.. It was a really good place for a hike the follow morning into a canyon that ran into the main gorge. 

Bad weather was forecast for the weekend, heavy rain, and some of this was predicted to fall as snow where I was, so I drove a couple of hours south, to a lower altitude, through the town of Errachidia to a campsite again on the Ziz river, near the smaller town of Aoufous. This was a bigger campsite, and had three other French motorhomes staying, though room for many more. One of the motorhomes was an older guy and his wife, both in their 80s, who were regular visitors along with their quad bike, which they towed, and drove off into the surrounding mountains each day. 

The unseasonable heavy rain set in on Saturday morning and lasted until early afternoon on Sunday. It left behind lots of flooding and washed out several of the minor unsealed roads around this area, and most likely wider. It was cold as well, temperatures between 1 and 6C. 

Typically, having prepared to ensure the van had minimal problems, two have cropped up over the weekend. Having had an excellent three days with Starlink, the router has become stuck, either on a reboot or during an update. The customer help is all AI, and has been unable to help, so I’ve a request in to speak to a human.. could be a long wait.. 

And I’ve a problem with the van fridge, the compressor was on permanently and not doing any cooling, just draining my battery, so I’ve disconnected it. It won’t be easy to repair or renew here, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to do without a fridge in this winter time. It will most likely need to wait until I am back in Spain. 

This afternoon (Sunday) the rain has cleared. It’s clearly come as something of a shock to the local people. It was accompanied by two lengthy power outages, and driving is still difficult with all the water around.