Day 1 morning -

The next morning we met our guide Rashid who was twenty years old, spoke great English (finally) and let us know our itinerary for the next 4 days. He then told us to get our hiking boots on. Uhm. We had on the best footwear we had, unfortunately they were deck shoes which is pretty much all we have got. Anyhow a few extra layers of socks, a meeting of the mules. (did you know that mules are a cross between a horse and a donkey and cannot reproduce). The weather was sunny and off we went first stop a mountain pass called Tizi Tamatart. It looked a long way off and it seemed above the snow line, however with unbounded confidence, off we went. Two hours later and having tasted my breakfast a number of times we (other than Hannah) were severely knackered  whether it was the altitude, or not having done any steep walks it was difficult. Gabriel was lording it up on a mule, Hannah was keeping up with the guides while dawn and i laboured on. Finally we got to the mountain pass and the view was extraordinary of a huge valley dotted with Berber villages clinging to the mountain side. Our guides who had barely broken a sweat had made us a beautiful lunch (with tea). I slumped down and gazed. The last two hours were the first uphill walking we had done since well i cant remember. We sat on plastic chairs on the top of this pass and a mixture of awe and physical depletion set in. The view was amazing.