“I always loved the desert. It sits on a sand dune. You see nothing. You hear nothing. And yet something shines in silence.” (Antoine St Exupery)

“The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment. In it is death and all you seek.” (Ibrahim- al-Koni)

“Now there was a grey insect-like vegetation everywhere, a tortured scrub of hard shells and stiff hairy spines that covered the earth like an excrescence of hatred.” (Paul Bowles)

Running out of money and eating sardine sandwiches was not how I envisaged spending Christmas day, but I left Talioune thankful that the familiar blue skies had returned. The mountains that had been shrouded in clouds for the last week were now visible with a fresh layer of snow on the higher peaks.  It might be the last snow I’ll see in a long time. A different story back home I’ve been reading.

The Souss Valley is one of Morocco’s most fertile regions. It was half waterlogged as I free-wheeled passed fields of olive, orange and argan trees. And there was I thinking that water shortage was an issue in Morocco .  Read more... (720 words, 6 images, estimated 2:53 mins reading time)

It felt strange to be by myself again after leaving Demnate. One thing I hadn’t mentioned in the previous post is how a guest in a Muslim family is rarely left alone. I knew that for my hosts it would have been rude to do so. There must be something written in the Koran about this. It’s really about time I picked up a copy, if there’s a light paperweight version that is. It was a similar story staying with locals in other Muslim countries, such as Pakistan, Syria and Libya. In the face of such hospitality all these experiences have left me feeling overwhelmed and indebted. At the same they’ve been complete contrasts to the comparative solitude of my normal life on the road.  Read more... (2250 words, estimated 9:00 mins reading time)