Our tour took us into the Atlas Mountains and we stayed with a local family of Berbers (nomadic people) for two nights. The kasbah (fortress/castle) we stayed in contained a family of 18! It was huge! They even had a dining hall for dinner because there were so many people in their family.
Their dinners were amazing. They put on the best spread and always overfed us with bread, vegetables, tajine, omelettes, meat and fruit. If you took out the bread that we’ve been eating in every meal, the Moroccans actually have a very healthy and basic diet. I’ve just eaten way too much bread to be healthy!
It was incredible because when we woke up in the morning, snow was falling. I couldn’t believe it! The previous morning we woke up in the Sahara desert and now we were in snow!
Nobody on the tour was prepared for snow so everybody had to rug up with as many layers as possible. Even before this freezing weather we had two people on tour who had become really sick. I wore 5 layers on my upper body and my leggings and tracksuit pants on my lower body just to be super snug! Even the Berbers weren’t prepared for snow. They said it had been 12 years since they had last seen snow.
Despite the weather, everyone was still keen to go on the 10km walk and just rug up. I just wanted a chance to walk off all of my bread! Only 8 of the 12 went on the walk as the others have been feeling sick.
I’m so glad we got to go on the walk because the snow was so beautiful. It was light, fresh and white; completely untouched.
The village was also empty, except for a few children who were outside playing in the snow. Three teenage boys began to follow us. They tried to talk to me but I didn’t understand anything they said. They then re-taught me how to count to twenty in French and I taught them how to count to twenty in English.
The language barrier was so strong, I struggled to ask them what their names were and how old they were. They used this language barrier to their advantage as they changed their names multiple times. Even though they were teenagers, they were so excited to have snow that they created a snowman, which looks slightly demented.
As we walked up one of the mountains, the snow began to fall more rapidly and the wind was stronger. It was so cold in our faces that I ended up walking backwards and it felt like we were walking through a blizzard!
When we walked down the mountain, we had to cross a river to get back into the village.
I was so clumsy that I fell into the river and my everything from my waist down got wet. Thankfully, my phone and camera were okay, I just was very wet and cold (especially my feet). We continued walking and had some tea in a nearby house.
The walk back to our homestay was much nicer because the sun came out. This still didn’t help me get warm with my wet bottom and shoes.
I would never have expected Morocco to have snow or for me to actually see the snow! It was amazing and I can’t believe I was lucky enough to see it. As our tour comes to an end, I can’t believe how much I’ve seen in Morocco. Snow, desert, markets, kasbahs, endless amounts of cous cous and tajine, it has been an unforgettable experience. I will never adjust to the craziness of Morocco but I am grateful for all that I’ve seen.
Wanderlust Maddy 