A couple of villages in the foothills on our way into the mountains
We’re moving onward and higher into the mountains. The road was beginning to get a little more difficult to navigate, the surface was now just rocks and hard pack.
Most of the landscape up here is in varying degrees of light and dark grey rock with some black coloring in the mix.
It seemed that everything in this place consisted of nothing but rock, then more rock on top of that.
It had the feel of cold dark and ominous, no comfortable vibe at all. It all looked so ancient, like remnants of a darker age; the fact that it was a grey sky day certainly didn’t help matters any.
Given how I saw some of these mountain areas; this one in particular.
I’m sure my thought would have been something along the lines of;
the civilization we are currently in is not the same one we started the day in. It felt like we took a giant step back in time.
Driving through these craggy rock dominated regions has been an exciting but unnerving experience, but so worth the risk; I think
However, getting back to twentieth century civilization will be a much better place for me.
Holy shit man, this was just a mountain pass used by trade caravans for two three or four thousand years. And now it passes for a fucking road;
the mountain highway; God help us
In several places rocks had fallen from the mountain face onto the road, but none 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’s no cliff 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 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 needed to reduce his speed a bit and started to down shift quickly in order 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 partially slid off the edge of the road a bit.
All I could see was the 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 of life…
But then, just as I expecting to hear the absolute silence from within death, something happened.
Oh my God, I can’t believe what I’m seeing, we’re on the other side of the mountain face, he made the fucking turn.
I’m so happy we’re still alive, so grateful we didn’t go over the cliff, if we had we were dead for sure…
I have to admit that I had 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.
At 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.
However, from 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, therefore it will not…and that’s absolutely the bottom line.
And from the spiritual side of things, believing so hard we were still alive, and that by refusing to accept any other alternative was how my spirit side was going to deal with the possibility that we may have in fact went over the cliff and died, but didn’t……..how’s that for some weird fucking thoughts eh?
heavy or what…holy fuck Wow man.
If anyone were to have a momentary instant in their life where they felt an incredibly terrifying and powerful sense of impending doom was about to occur and there was absolutely nothing in the world you could do to prevent it, you could only watch it coming to rip the life from your body. This event would have been my momentary instant…I was so fucking scared.
could be a road of impending doom
Thankfully that scare is now behind us; but the scary and bizarre thoughts I was having about it are now going to be in my head forever.
I already have enough scary shit in my life, I certainly didn’t need more.
But on the upside, we’re still alive safe and sound; and for real.
This incident was the most unbelievably frightening experience of my life .
I think I need some clean underwear
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 style, it’s dangerous driving.
I will say however in Mel’s defense, 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 could possibly end well for us; and I swear to God, from my position there was no fucking road under my corner of the car; but he got us through the turn and that’s what mattered.
Wow, what a day, so many rushes; and not all of them have been good either…
…but It’s all going to be okay now…
It was now getting late in the day and night arrives early up here in the mountains; once the sun goes behind a peak it gets dark quite fast.
We’re now on our back to Agadir, about 150km away. Heading back was going to be a slower drive as night 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 at night, unless they were tempting fate, or had a death wish, or just being foolish, maybe just looking to see where the road ends.; we know where the road ends.
It ends right where the car runs off the edge of the mountain and explodes…
that’s where it ends, fool
We were on the right hand side of the road, the cliff side, and no barrier.
The road at this point was quite 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.
As the cars quite slowly eased past each other, Mel all of a sudden got very rattled, he said the cars were so close together he thought he heard the door handles hit each other, and we were on the cliff side, he was quite 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.
I thought it was nothing, Mel thought it was a big deal. And for him, it absolutely was a big deal.
And just like my issue earlier in the day, it too was also a big deal, for me.
I don’t think he ever recognized it as such.
But how we all manage our thoughts about situations as they’re unfolding all comes down to our own position and perspective.
Although Mel and I had quite a difference of opinion about how the events of the day unfolded, the matter of fact was, whichever side of the fence you were on, no one could deny that we had one fuck of an exciting day.
It’s pretty dark now and we still have a mile or two too go before we’re off the mountain. Up here you can’t see shit except where the headlights shine, 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.
Another beautiful valley
Well, we got back safe and sound; but I think it 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. 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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