Day 100
Have you noticed? It’s our 100th day on the road! We toasted our time with a cup of steaming nous-nous and sat in bed watching the sunrise appear in pale pinks and blues across the sky.
We had made plans with Ahmad to attend the campsite Saturday night animations (live music) and supper of wild cabbage and chickpea soup. Not to be missed!
Chairs and tables arranged inside tonight and again, everyone on the campsite gathered inside talking and chatting, wild cabbage leaves that we had seen on our walk yesterday, gathered and cooked into a nourishing soup and steaming bowlfuls served to each guest.
And finally the time for animations and Ahmad, brothers, friends and local workers gathered together a group of chairs and sat down with a range of darbouka (drum held under the arm), bendir (tambourine type drum with stretched camel skin), qraqeb (metal castanets) and taarija (kettle type drum with stretched goat skin).
The drums beating mesmerically, syncopated clapping and the singing brought Africa to our ears and hearts again.
Day 101
With no other plans for anything today, we lazed around snuggled up in bed till we finally managed to drag ourselves outside into the bright sunshine at around noon! Yes, we are, at times, wilfully slovenly and lazy.
Brunch was a Khilea Omlette with local khobz (bread). Khilea is a meat made in the same tradition as biltong – cured with the same spices and air dried & called Gueddid – but with an additional step of cutting it into strips and cooking it low and slow for 3 hours then preserving in fat. Totally delish!
Tick, tock, tick, tock as time passed, we lazed in the sun as it cooled and lowered in the sky, reading, passing time, relaxing and every so often stopping to chat.
| When you don’t need an answer there’ll be days like this When you don’t meet a chancer there’ll be days like this When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit it Then I must remember there’ll be days like this When no one steps on our dreams there’ll be days like this When people understand what we mean there’ll be days like this When you ring out the changes of how everything is Well my mama told me there’ll be days like this – Van Morrison |
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