Day 186 21st January
Another day off.
I’m getting itchy feet but that’s not all; I haven’t had a shower since Tuesday!!!
Today started once again with a lovely brekkie of hacher bread made by Fazilla, Kamal’s wife, with eggs , olives and fresh coffee. Then I helped Kamal at the shop and took a delivery of new stock. I served a young girl 2kg of couscous and Kamal tried to marry me off.
As we were having tea Kamal pointed out another cyclist and I soon recognised it to be Anders that I’d met in Assilah at the hostel. I called out his name and he was very surprised, but stopped and came over. I introduced him to Kamal and within minutes he was invited in for lunch and to stay the night. We had a good lunch and then went in Mohammed’s Fiat Uno to see his farm and have tea. At the farm there are different types of oranges and lemons.
We had a good look round and then, as is the custom, sat down to tea with dates, olives and olive oil, fresh bread and biscuits. We chatted and I tried to translate between Anders and the others, but my French is not great so it was a bit tricky. It turns out that Anders is quite a traveller. He has run 161 marathons and cycled west to east across America among other many adventures and is known as the biking Viking.
Then in the evening back at the shop, we watched them playing cards in the room next door and Anders and I were to meet lots of Kamal’s friends and customers, which eventually ended with six of us dancing Moroccan style, while the onlookers clapped and cheered. It was something I shall never forget. Back at the house we had fish tagine cooked with fish from the nearby river and fresh cooked bread. Before going to bed that night Yousan begged us to stay longer.