qafila thalitha — Carlos Perez Marin

INTRODUCTION

In 2017, the original idea was to walk with my friends between M’hamid El Ghizlane and Akka, and then I was going to continue with two nomads till the oasis of Tighmert (Guelmim), but because finally we decided to stop in Tissin, I wanted in 2018 to finish what it was planned. Qafila Thalitha was a 330 km walk between Tissin and Tighmert, organised by Marsad Drâa, with the collaboration of Caravane Tighmert, and the logistic was provided by Said Razgui.

TOPOGRAPHY

For the first time I used smart phones, so I almost knew the location at every moment with Google Maps, however the information provided by old plans (thanks to the graphic design) was even more accurate, a series of plans made by the American army in the 40s and 50s, based on those by the French army. These plans can be dowloaded from the online archive of The University of Texas at Austin.

It was interesting that Mouloud (camel driver) only knew the way till Tissint (from M’hamid) and Omar (the guide) till Icht. Hopefully I knew the rest of the route till Tighmert because it was close to the route I had already done several times.

This is the exactly route we followed. Besides you can watch some videos and pictures we included in this interactive map.

VIDEOS

The Lomokino I used in Qafila Oula, encouraged me to buy a Bolex 16mm camera from the 80s, following the advice of Oliver Laxe (he used them for his first film Todos Sois Capitanes). In fact, I tried to used it during Beyond Qafila Thania, but a problem preventing me and Heidi from using it. This time it also had a problem, but at leat I could record some seconds every shot.

For the first time I used my iPhone to make some videos because I was not sure what I did with the Bolex was going to work.

DAY 00

It was weird to do the same path I was going to walk but by bus, between Guelmim and Tissint. A road that I had already done 5 or 6 times but my look was now different because I tried to memorise the geography, to find me on each section of the route (with the help of Google Maps). On the one hand it will avoid the surprise of the discovery, but as mental exercise was good, to draw in my brain the route, spatially

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and not just with the satellite view.

Coming down from the bus, 2 km before Tissint, Said was waiting for me and gave me the (bad) news, he had knee pain and he could not come with us. I was going to leave with his brother Mouloud and with Omar, a nomad who moves between M'hamid and Smara.

As usual, we wake up with the light, around 7h30, but we leave at 9am because the first time we have to load everything on the camels it takes time. One of the camels came with us last year, the other is young and smaller. Half of the trip is done next to a road, not very nice but the river does not leave us other option. Concerning the route, we do it through Tata instead of Icht, that is to say, completely
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different to what I had planned. According to Omar, the army does not allow us to walk this road, close to the border. In any case, this path was also used by caravans because it is a "feija".

At a given moment, we move away from the road and we pass next to a small palm groves, like Tiguiz.

We walk for 3h30 and we stop below a talha (acacia tree) to eat.

In theory, it will take us 2 days to reach Tata ...
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We ended up getting closer to the national road, after 28km, at least we are far, near a small hill that divides the valley in two, the left side leads directly to Tata, the other does it from the rear side of the city.

During the day I compared the three caravans I made and there are always differences but the first one will remain as an interplanetary trip, with constant landscape changes.

This time it seems to me that it will be more monotonous, but traveling alone (with Omar and Mouloud) makes it more relaxing, moreover, the training allows me not to "suffer" and enjoy the sight and walking with camels, still so exciting.

Finally we will go to Tata, the passage between mountains that could save us 14 km is controlled by the army, that is to say, they will not let us
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pass ... It is incredible how they occupy a territory without thinking the consequences on the nomads. According to Mouloud it was necessary to stop smuggling (drugs, tobacco, weapons...). In any case, there is one aspect that motivates me enormously, to reach Tighmert by foot. For me, the idea of arriving at Noul Lamta is so powerful! It is a way for better understanding the place and why not, to put oneself in the place of
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caravans that arrived centuries ago.

In the evening, while Mouloud and Omar were preparing dinner, the camels went to eat the talhas, but when Omar wanted to get them back, he did not find them. With Mouloud, they left again but at midnight they returned to the camp alone! We decided to have dinner and sleep because Omar could not find their tracks during the night. He was going to try again in the morning.

At 7 o'clock Omar was not there. Mouloud was worried (me too) but at 8h30 he arrived with the camels, but from the Tata direction. By the way, the camels went to eat towards Tissint, then they went to the national road and then to Tata looking for us. Finally we left at 9h30.
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The walk was at a good pace, not too much heat, a little bit windy. At some point, I thought we had already done 3h but not, only 2! I had lost all sense of time and distance, despite walking at 11 minutes per hour (as I used to do in Ceuta). Omar was happy with the walk. According to him, nomads walk 10 minutes per km. We stop after 18 km, more or less like yesterday.
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The landscape is always the same and makes the parallel path to the road not very attractive. I think the whole caravan is going to be the same way…

Before eating, and crossing a village, three 4x4 cars with tourists stopped to take pictures of us (yesterday it was a car). A man asked if we were on holidays, when I told him we were doing some researches, he did not believe me ...
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After the village, some kids came to see us, very kindly, they took 2 cans to fill them with water in the village, two of them stayed to eat with us and they told Omar a way, near the mountains over a river, a very beautiful path, especially since there was grass giving a beautiful ground color.

We found a place to rest after 26 km.

We were awakened by the energy of the children of the nomad family who was next to us. On leaving we spoke with them (a couple with three children). He is a ”harratine” and he told us the best way to get to Tata and also to a well where the camels could drink water for the first time.

The path we thought we could take was not possible. According to the haratine, a French woman bought a parcel between the mountains that
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shape the valley and we "can" not pass through ...

If not, we saw some changes of soil, of course pebbles and sand river, those who fell from the mountains but also green gravel often seen in the south.

At midday we landed on Tata, rather on its "metropolis", with small villages and small oases distributed between the mountains.
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Omar wanted to come to a small village to buy, Al-Khamise, just outside the "metropolis" of Tata. Even though we asked the shepherds we crossed the most direct way, it was not easy, because the river had micro-valleys inside, separated by hills made of silt, a very beautiful topography with several levels, at the bottom, gardens with talhas (acacia trees), at the top, a rounded beige surface. When we thought we were coming to the end, Omar could not come down with the
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camels, too risky for them. He had to come back and walk for an hour to meet us. It happened to us a second time before arriving at the village, already in the middle of the night.

We also had to decide where to sleep, I proposed to do it inside the palm grove that was on the other side of the national road. It was not a good idea ...

When we settled down, Mouloud saw we were in a place of passage. We dropped everything and suddenly

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a donkey ran through with someone on his back, we lost sight of him, but a few moments later, we hear a very, very angry man, in fact, he fell at the end of the plot. He told us that as soon as his donkey felt the smell of camels, he went crazy. Finally he had nothing and he came back home.

We did not know in this palm grove they do the turn of water and we had people working around us during the whole
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night. Besides, dogs were also having their party. In short, you must not stay inside a palm grove ...

We went to buy more supplies to Al-Khamise and then we took the direction to the mountains that will take us to Akka 2 days later, leaving behind the impressive mountains of Tata. Walking next to the mountain also forces us to cross the river several times, and it is not always easy to do it because of the height difference between the bed of the river and the shores, without mention the rounded pebbles.

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al least we could walk on flat ground for a few kilometers, despite the heat. Today, between the tiredness of yesterday, the hectic night at the palm grove and the shopping, we started at 10h30 instead of 9h. The walk lasted until 13h45, with the sun, with a path full of black stones, it tired me a lot and we still have 10 km to do on stones, plus tomorrow that we'll finish before Akka, to devite us towards Tinzoumine.
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This morning was an opportunity to ask me what I was doing there!

The goats always come as a poorly organised army, the shepherd told us the two possible paths to Akka, the road or to continue next to the mountain on the pebbles. The answer was clear, even though the risk of a sprain was very high. We did 8 km for a day of 24'5 km, the shortest day, but it's normal with the type of terrain.

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We settled down in one of the "camp" used by nomads, that is to say, a place cleaned with stones in a circle. We had to dispose everything to create a barrier that protects us from the wind. It blew a lot until the midnight. The place reminds me a lot on my first night with the nomads, in 2013, near Erg Chegaga. A flat place, with some acacias, the mountains just behind us and "nothing" in front. We could look at the stars in its splendor, in
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a big space, by the way, I feel better in large areas, maybe because there's only one straight line left between heaven and earth.
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Despite the beauty of the landscape, we could not sleep because of the insects that appeared after the wind stopped.

We tried to leave earlier to avoid the heat (around 31-32ºC) but from the awakening at 7am until the load of camels, we left finally at 8h45.
We had in mind that a very hard day was expecting us, with pebbles, but also with the desire to arrive near Akka. I think that the psychological preparation is fundamental, because the first part was not too hard, it did not matter the pebbles.
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During the break we clarified, on the plans, the possibilities of arriving to Icht without needing to walk near the national road. Omar knows the villages but he can not find himself on Google Maps or the plans I printed, which have been more useful, thanks to the graphic representation, especially the mountains and tracks. We'll see…
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After looking at the maps and Google Maps during lunch, at the time of leaving, the sand in the air erased all references and we made a mistake with a small hill that made us deviate a little bit. At least the pebbles have left their place to a gravel ground on which we could walk at 11 minutes per hour. We had to go through a village to buy some goods, but the only store hadn’t fresh products, so tomorrow we are bound to go through Tinzoumine, instead of Tamdoult.
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In the village, the children took pictures of the camels, it was funny. We left in the middle of the night to search, 2 km away, a place to sleep. We still need 2 days until arriving to Foum Hisn, which will lead us to Icht (behind it).

The people of the village offered us a place to sleep, but we refused, we preferred to enter the darkness that we saw at the end of the alley ...

For the first time I was able to sleep without being awake. The nights are getting colder, which is good.

Yesterday we had gone directly to Tinzoumine, because in Mlalek we could not buy vegetables, but finally we left directly to Tamdoult. On Google Maps the place was not indicated, but it was on the American plans. I did not expect the city to be on a rock, nor that there were still walls standing at the bottom of the casbah.
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It was also a bit odd that the city was too close to a riverbed. There is a marabout built on stone, but I think it was built later. There are pieces of red ceramic composed of small pieces. Most buildings, those around the fortification, are made of stone, but the remparts are on rammed earth.

From above, we perceive all access to the feija (valley), hence the importance of the location.
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On the valley it was surprising how much shellfish we saw, as if it was a lake.

I thought about caravan routes. We can say that logic would bring them to the edge of the mountains, but in fact, they took almost all the time, parallel paths inside the mountains (if possible).

Omar and Mouloud had never heard about Tammedoult, in addition, they hallucinated when I said their tribe, Aarib, came to Morocco through this place.
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What a luxury to eat with an amazing view towards Tammedoult (9th-14th century). On the other hand, one hour later the wind has risen with a lot of sand. Omar and Mouloud said, "it's normal, the desert without wind is not a desert".

I told them why it was a strategic place, explaining the caravan routes to northern Morocco and then Europe, plus the consequences of political relations with neighboring countries. We talked about Zagora tribes, in the past and in the present.
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Omar called a (nomad) friend to ask him for some information on the road we mentioned on the plans. He confirmed that it is better and that it is shorter than going to Icht. He gave it very specific details about the coffee shop and the shop we will see at the entrance of the village, Ait Ouabeli, in the mountain pass (foum), the kind of soil that we will see... According to the nomad we could arrive to Taghjijt in 4 days.
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For the moment, we have finished the sixth day (in theory half of the route) at 8-10 km from the foum, tomorrow we will change the landscape, from a big valley to a smaller FEIJA.

For the first time the night has been cold, which is good for keeping insects away from us.

This morning we had to be careful with the water because there was very little left, pending the purchases at Ait Ouabeli, which was 12 km away. Just before the village, there was some water and the camels could drink for the third time.

I recognised the village. The first time
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I crossed this road I told myself, I have to stop here once because the village climbs on the mountain. Today we stayed almost 2 hours to buy vegetables and water. We have been the center of attention of children and also adults. Through the alleys, women took videos of the camels. Camels are spectacular when they are loaded. Children wanted to know where we came from
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and our destination. At the end, they accompanied us to fill the bottles in a well.

We are already in a feija that will take us 5 km away from Icht. This narrower valley is much quieter but a path with lots of pebbles is waiting us, because we have to follow the river, outside of it, it's even worse. According to Omar's friend, the nomads use this route to get away from the cities and the
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national road, which I understand perfectly.

It is strange to cross a 25 km desertic valley. We know that in the middle, on the mountains, there is a village, but the impression is really to be an abandoned valley. On the contrary, we saw a lot of nomad traces with camels.

Maybe it's because of the scale but the space is beautiful with the mountains on both
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sides, the river and the talhas (acacia trees).

Tomorrow we will arrive at the national road, 5 km after Icht.

I understood why this valley is abandoned. We have seen quite a lot of worms that eat acacia wood, so this disease is on all trees. I'm afraid to carry them with us and help them colonise other talhas.

The size of the valley allows us to better appreciate the mountains that follow us, especially once arrived on the track that I had seen on the plans. According to Omar, this path is better than the
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previous because there were more wind and sand on the other, that is to say, it is better to go through narrow valleys rather than wide ones.

On the track, an Emirati 4x4 car passed near us. The driver raised his hand but he did not stop, nor he said hello. I think it's normal because those people who live in the desert, hate it (except for hunting) and they do not know some basic rules in the desert life.
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Truthfully, the trail we found is like a highway, after several days where we saw only pebbles and stones.

We have observed from afar the passage of Icht (Foum Hassane). They are very impressive.

Since Omar does not know the way, he does not know where the wells are, so we will have to fill the bottles of water in the villages. Tomorrow morning it will be the case, before
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Taghjijt.

If not, as the days progress, fatigue is no longer linked to walking but to life in the desert. The temperature is now between 25 and 27ºC the day, against 31-33ºC the first week. By consequence nights are already cold.

From now on, time passes very quickly, whether walking or even during moments of rest, that is to say, practically tomorrow we will be in Tighmert.

It seems that the track we followed is very used by tourists in 4x4 cars. Yesterday 10 (cars) from Agadir passed nearby, and of course they took pictures of us. This morning 2 cars passed but we were still having breakfast.

Almost all the places we slept, were beautiful, especially as the moon approaches its fullness and we can see
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the mountains that surround us.

There is hardly any water and you have to look for the next village, continuing the trail, but before you get there, it ends. It is curious how we are used to follow a path, a line, a route, a system ... apart from all that we think it is not possible, while we have just made two-day marches jumping on pebbles
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and stones. So, why do we follow the trail if the more direct path to the village goes through a terrain with some stones? We let ourselves be carried away by the convenience of not thinking where we are going ...

Young people from Ouazzane who work as truck drivers gave us water and we had to walk beside the national road on a river, which was so exhausting for us.
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As the 4th day (we added 3 km to the total indicated by the watch), today it would be necessary to add 4.1 km

In the afternoon, we left the Sous-Massa region to go into the Guelmim-Oued Noun one. Tomorrow we will be in Taghjijt, a place already known during my visits to Amtoudi.

Tomorrow too, the highlight moment will be when seeing Dar Al-Sultan, the Almoravid fortress (or Almohade) who controlled this caravans passage, which I will visit on Saturday, because it is out of question of visiting it tomorrow with the fatigue.

We feel the presence of nomads (with lots of animal traces) that we will meet tomorrow, between 7 and 8 tents.

At the beginning of the night, 2 people came near us by car, then they came to see us. They were the guards of the Emirati hunting terrains, sent by the caïd of the nearest village we just passed. They wanted to know if we were fine (the tourist accompanied by 2 Moroccans who had left Tissint). We also talked about the journey
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until Taghjijt and after drinking a tea, they left. But 30 minutes later, we heard another car with 4 people, the sheikh of the village and 3 soldiers from the auxiliary forces, also sent by the caïd. They asked us for all the papers, the route we took... Mouloud talked by phone to the caïd, it was 9:30 pm. I told the soldiers: “I know it's your job, but if I did not know Morocco, I would have been afraid to be so controlled because
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it was not normal to disturb us at this time”.

In the morning the weather changed radically, overcast, cold, windy ... We agreed not to stop for lunch and to try to get closer to Taghjijt. At noon, the rain started and at 8pm it continues to fall.

We were all wet and we had to use the tents for the first time
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21 km.

This situation is very similar to that lived during Qafila Oula in 2016. Even if we were waiting for the rain in Tighmert the last day of the caravan, we do not know what we will do if the weather continues like that, because we do not have enough clothes and we can not dry them from one day to another. In addition, the rains announced Thursday, will be heavy. We'll see if we have to finish tomorrow Qafila Thalitha
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after Taghjijt (40 km before planned) or if we arrive to Tighmert. At least, Omar and Mouloud do not put troubles for walking under the rain.

Rainy days allow us to rest, but it is a bit boring to stay since 17h (until morning) in a small tent. "Fortunately" the rain stopped at night and in the morning it was fine. We still do not know if there will be rain today, not yet...

As expected, the entrance to Taghjijt was very spectacular, nothing to do when you do it by car. I really want to climb this weekend
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till Dar Sultan, the Almoravid fortress...

In the village we did shopping. Everyone was watching us, they were taking pictures and videos, old people, young people, children, they were all surprised to see camels. A girl who was coming out of school and returning home by bike said: "Aoual marra! Aoual marra! "first time! first time!”

While Mouloud and Omar were buying things, I was holding the two camels, an old man approached, I thought he wanted to talk to me, but on the other side of the street, a young man was taking a picture of him with us, then he wanted to hold the ropes as if he was the camel driver. Afterwards we spoke in Arabic, when Mouloud and Omar arrived, he wanted to know where we were heading to and he did not believe when he asked if we knew the road to Tighmert because Omar told him: "No, but Carlos he knows "

He has hallucinated to see a foreigner with two camels who spoke Arabic and who knew (more or less) the territory.
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Crossing the palm grove I realised how many parcels have been planted with palm trees, the same observation I made in Tata and Ait Ouabeli, which is good news.

For the end of the day we decided it would be better to walk on the road to Fask, because we had to recover the kilometres we did not do yesterday because of the
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rain. We are all tired but we only have 40 km to the end...

It was amazing the humidity there can be here. During the night I had the feeling that it was raining, if I knew it, I would have slept inside the tent.

At the beginning of the morning we did not know if it was better to continue walking on the road, or to look for a track beside the river. We started with the road but when we saw a mountain pass, we went
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direct to it, at the end we had to cross a stream, with pebbles. The worst is not the existence of water, but the moist clay soil, which becomes very slippery, such as the young camel experienced yesterday in the palm grove of Taghjijt, where he fell.

Given the difficulty of walking on (or beside) the river, we made the journey on the road. At a given moment, a shepherd confirmed to us that the best way was the road, and that's what we're going to do.
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until we crossed the road to Assa, already in the "valley of Tighmert".

Looking at the mountains, I thought of the idea that a traveler might have coming from the desert, because they become, with the valleys, a true labyrinth that I had to analyse and represent one day.

As there was no track on the river that led directly to the road of Assa,
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at least we did not know it (and the people of the village either), we had to make a diversion, following the road. Arriving at the end, we were trapped (again) by the fake topography of the river. When it comes to sedimentary sand, there are always mini-cliffs that prevent you from continuing, especially if you go with camels and overall, very loaded. Once on the valley, we found the fields that people started to work on thanks to
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the rain (as Ahmed had told me), despite the fatigue and the desire to do not stay near the Assa road (which gave us strength to continue even more), we made a total of 30,5 km.

Throughout the night there has been a worry, the rain. I woke up and looked at the sky from time to time. Having to load everything and walk 17 km with the rain that was announced, was not too pleasant. With the sun, I realised that at least we would not have water at first, and especially not in large quantities.

This morning we needed "navigation". I spotted the bridge before the water spring to cross
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to the other side, which would take us directly to the square of the slaves, knowing that in the middle of our way, we would find a fenced agricultural plot and that we had to go to the left. But, by far, this plot gave us the impression to be already Tighmert, especially since a little earlier, a rammed earth house with some trees and farmland, made me believe that we were already in the middle of the journey.
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But the distance-time ratio was fine and it was more of an illusion to think we were going faster or that the distances shown on the map and on Google Maps were not good. It was, I think, a desire turned into an illusion and it was not the first time that feeling arrived me.

An hour later, the rain appeared, with wind. It did not matter if we arrived completely
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wet, because a hot water shower was waiting for us. On the other hand, we did not count with the ground, that the water turned into slippery track and that we made walk much more slowly. Faced with this situation we had two options, to cross the bridge and continue walking on this type of terrain and weather, or to go directly to the palm grove and take shelter, despite the difficulty of crossing it with
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camels. Speaking with Omar and Mouloud, we decided to protect ourselves from wind and slippery ground. Besides, instead of going to the slaves square, it was better to go to Ahmed's house directly, but when we were already in Tighmert, he sent me a message saying that he was waiting for us in the square with friends and tea.
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So, we had to change the destination again, except that I did not know very well the direct way with the camels. We were wrong and we were in the middle of abandoned plots, without really finding an exit towards the center of Tighmert. Finally a person accompanied us and showed us the way, which I could continue towards the square, thanks to Google Maps. This
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part of the oasis I did almost always by car and only 2 times by foot. At least the rain stopped and we were walking on an asphalted track. Between the rain, the tiredness, the fact of being "lost", I had the feeling to have walked more than 20 km, instead of 12-15 km. I watched Omar and Mouloud who wanted to know if we were too far from the end of the journey or not, because they were a little bit exhausted
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I tried to encourage them by saying that my friends had prepared us a welcome (which I did not know but which ended up being true).

Finally we arrived (20 minutes later than the hour I told Ahmed, which is incredible) to the square where the descendants of the slaves organise their festival, and we do
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ours (Caravane Tighmert). It was a pity to arrive wet and tired and to do not be able to fully enjoy the moment. In any case, it was very symbolic for me. Apart from Ahmed, there were Abderrahmane, Hamza and two other friends, they brought carpets, tea and a tajine.

I was worried for Mouloud and Omar
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because they wanted to continue and settle down outside the oasis before the expected storm arrives. But Ahmed invited them to stay at home, safe. Even the camels stayed in a plot of Ahmed with food and water, according to him, they had a 5-star room, before being transported in a pick-up to Foum Zguid.
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During the night, we took the opportunity to remember moments and share them with Ahmed, in addition with the joy of having finished QAFILA THANIA without problems.