We're moving onward and upward. The road had got a little more difficult to navigate, the surface was now just rocks and dirt. 
It was likely one of the caravan trails that's been used as a mountain pass through for a few  thousand years. 

In several places rocks had fallen from the mountain face onto the trail, but none of them were too big for us to get around.  
Mel was driving, he was by far the better driver, a bit fast at times, but still the better driver.  
He was much more in his element behind the wheel than in a passenger seat.
   
We were now on a bit of a down grade and there was no cliff edge barrier on this narrow road.  I felt Mel was driving a little too fast considering the condition of the road, but I don't remember just how fast he was going. 

I'm sure I was saying something about the speed, when all of a sudden coming up real fast was an extremely hard right turn around the edge of the mountain face.  
Mel realized he was going maybe a little too fast and started to down shift quickly to slow the car down enough to navigate the turn. 

Eve and Aileen were on the passenger side of the car next to the mountain wall and couldn't see things from my perspective.  
I was in the back seat right behind Mel,  and when he went into the turn I was looking out my side window down at the road, there was no road. 
My guess was that the turn was so hard and sharp that the left rear wheel may have slid off the edge of the road a bit.

​All I could see was a sheer drop over the cliff that rolled down into the valley below. 
I swear the back corner of the car was no longer on the road, and in that instant a million thoughts were going through my mind. 

He's not going to make the turn, we're going over the cliff, we're all going to die, my kids are going to be orphans.  
I was sucking in what I thought was going to be my very last breath........
   




Oh my God,  I couldn't believe it man, he made the fucking turn.  I'm so happy we're still alive, so happy we didn't go over the cliff, if we had, we were dead for sure...

I do have to admit that I had a very strange vibe about this event as it was  happening.  For just an instant I wasn't sure if we made the turn or not. 
In that very instant I considered the possibility that Mel didn't make the turn and the car went over the cliff and we all died in a fiery explosive crash.

But in my head, as I was so into life and living my brain may have refused to accept the fact that we might be dead....
And from the spiritual side of things,  believing so hard we were still alive that by refusing to accept any other alterative was how my spirit side was going to deal with the possibility that we may have in fact went over the cliff and died......
how's that for some weird fucking thoughts eh? is that heavy, or what?

Well happily I was wrong.  We're still alive, safe and sound, and for real.  But the whole incident really scared the shit out of me.  

If anyone were to have a momentary instant in their life where they felt an incredibly  frightening and powerful sense of impending doom was about to occur, and there was absolutely nothing you could do to prevent it, this event would have been my momentary instant...oh so scared. 
   
Mel pulled the car over and we got out and I pissed for what seemed like twenty minutes.  At that moment I hated Mel for bringing us so close to what I thought was going to be our death, yet at the same time I loved him for not getting us killed.
I was very conflicted.   

​When I told Mel how dangerous I thought the whole experience was, he didn't understand why I thought it was that big of a deal;  this was just his driving style.
No way Mel, in the mountains it's not a style, it's dangerous driving. 

His focus of course was straight ahead and getting the car through the turn, not looking out the side window like I was.  From my position in the car this did not look like it would end well for us;  and I swear to God there was no fucking road under my corner of the car.      

​...but It's all going to be okay now......
    


It was now getting late in the day.  Night comes early in the mountains, almost as soon as the sun goes behind a peak it's dark. 
It was time to go back to Agadir, about 150 km away.  Heading back was a slower drive, and dusk was beginning to move in. 

We were only half way out of the mountains when we saw another car coming from the opposite direction.  I couldn't understand why anyone would be driving into the mountain at night, unless they may have had a death wish, or maybe just being foolish, who knew.
We were on the right hand side of the road, the cliff side, and no barrier.
The road at this point was narrow but just wide enough for two cars, two small cars. 

Mel was focused on the driving, the rest of us were just trying to relax and not paying much attention.  
I was emotionally and physically exhausted from the events of the day.
​
As the cars passed each other Mel all of a sudden got very rattled, he said the cars were so close together that he heard the door handles hit each other, he seemed to be very shook up. 
My immediate thought was, "after the fucking harrowing experience earlier today, this is the shit that rattles you"; what the fuck man, this was nothing.
But then I guess it just all comes down to position and perspective. 
   



​It's quite dark now and we're still in the mountains, and you can't see shit except the light from the headlights and the gazillion stars in the sky.
Very shortly we'll be off the mountain and down into the foothills where the road was wider and roughly paved.  
​We settled in for the long ride back to Agadir.

​Well, we got back safe and sound; but I think that was only by the grace of God. 

​Al had stayed back in town while the rest of us were on the ride of our lives.  
​He had met a couple of Americans that he had hung out with for the day. 
After they had left Al went back to Mel and Aileen's tent to smoke some hash. 

​He was in the tent chillin out and getting high, and he lit a candle. 
​Well he got careless and burned big holes in their sleeping bags, and one side of the tent was partially burned up also.  
​A very foolish and careless act; but for Mel and Aileen it was a complete fucking bummer....
     



Page #9

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   the good road



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the road of           impending doom



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 passing through
 the foothills



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 coming into the
 foothills




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Anti Atlas foothills
 


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small village near
Tafraout