Ibadhi women

The hotel last night was basic. The water pressure caused the shower head to shoot off but the aircon worked and the bed was clean and comfortable. Breakfast was stewed coffee, cake or French bread and jam. I’d hoped for fruit as the white peaches we had last night were so juicy.

Our police escort didn’t appear at our departure time of 8am so we left without them. M’Hamed enjoys trying to give them the slip but 2 hours later at a roundabout we were pulled over by military police who were very agitated that we had no escort. A lot of explaining had to be done with numerous walkie-talkie conversations between the police and hq. We had to pull over and wait for an escort so the time that took defeated the purpose - when they go ahead of us some drive faster than others so with none we were zooming along. The roads are so good.

The dual carriageway by-passed a city of 700,000 inhabitants. It’s in the gas extraction area. Almost everyone has electricity, aircon etc here as it is cheap.

Around 12.30 we reached Ghardaia, a large town in the desert, in the M’Zab Valley, a UNESCO site. This is at the heart of the traditional homeland of the Ibadi Muslims. It is made up of 5 fortified settlements that occupy the highest hills in the valley, each one crowned by a lone towering minaret. They retain the culture and customs since the Mozabite Berbers of the 12th century. We had lunch. Only veg soup and French bread for me.

Then we headed out of town to our guest house. We had to leave our footwear at the door. We have a ground floor bedroom with no aircon or window. There’s also a sitting room off it with 3 single whitewashed stone couches with a mattress on them. There is aircon there but no window. I’ll sleep on one of those. There’s a loo and shower and intermittent WiFi.

I had a swim as did Stephanie the 83 year old from New York. It was wonderfully refreshing.

We convened at 5 to go in the minibus for a walk to look at one of the ultra-conservative towns nearby, El Atteuf. When women of the Ibadhi sect marry they wear white robes with only one eye visible. We met our local guide - it’s forbidden for M’Hamed to show us round there. There were steps but I gave it a go as it was different from where we’ve been before.

We saw the market place with indentations where date kernels are crushed to feed the goats as they are good for the milk. A man had a knife sharpener - people need sharp knives when it comes to the halal goat killing. An old man was mending shoes while a small boy waited patiently to get a strap on his flip flop mended. We walked up through narrow alleys to see a house, open to view as the owners don’t live there any more. A couple of men were dragging a goat on a rope down - I think it knew what was in store as it was reluctant to go.

We saw the exterior of the oldest mosque from 10th century then the guide’s family graveyard. He explained how the 2 bits of rock at one end and one at the other was a male, with the opposite for women.

We were in an open area to descend steps to a white mausoleum. It is said Corbusier got his inspiration from it. By the time we headed back to the bus lots of robed women were out as the shops had re-opened after 6pm. (It gets dark about 8.15 here. They have a long siesta in the middle of the day as it is 40 degrees).

We got back to the guest house just as it got dark, so it was a late dinner.

The drive was 420km and the walk was over 3 miles today.