We're moving onward and upward. The road had got a little more difficult to navigate, the surface was now just rocks and hard pack. 
It was one of the caravan trails that's been used as a mountain pass for probably 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 edge barrier on this narrow road.  He wasn't driving fast but I felt he should slow down a bit considering where we are and the condition of the road, but I don't remember just how fast he was driving. 

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 outer edge of the left rear wheel may have partially 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 some very strange thoughts about this event as it was unfolding.  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.

From the physical side of my being, my brain would just not believe the holiday plan was going to end in our death, it just would not...that's the bottom line.
And on 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 don't have to deal with any of those strange and bizarre thoughts any longer because  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 from happening, this event would have been my momentary instant...I was so scared. 
   
Mel pulled the car over and we got out,  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 on the edge of a fucking cliff it's not a driving style, it's dangerous driving. 

However, I have to say in Mel's defense, his focus was straight ahead and getting the car through the turn, not looking out the side window like I was.  But 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 as dusk was beginning to move in. 

We were only partially 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 on this road at night, unless maybe they had a death wish, or maybe they were just being foolish.
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 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.
​
Mel all of a sudden got very rattled when the cars passed each other , he said the cars were so close together that he thought 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 how we all perceive things just comes down to position and perspective.. 
   
It's getting dark now and we still have a mile or two to go before we're off the mountain.  Up here you can't see shit except where the the headlights shine, and the gazillion stars in the sky.
In a few minutes 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 that we made it back alive.. 
Because Al decided to be a homebody today he missed what would have been the wildest ride of his life.

​He met a couple of Americans that he had hung out with for the day. 
After they had left he went back to Mel and Aileen's tent to smoke some hash. 
He was in the tent chilling out and getting high, and he lit a candle. 
​But 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 for sure; but for Mel and Aileen it was a complete fucking bummer....
     



Page #9

​Page links   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19    20  

   the good road



​
​
​

​


​

the road of           impending doom



​
​
​


​
​

 passing through
 the foothills



​
​
​


​

​

 coming into the
 foothills




​
​
​

​

​

Anti Atlas foothills
 


​

​

​


​
​

small village near
Tafraout