Landslide

Sitting in the back of the stuffy van in the heat, Caroline gazed out of a dust-smeared window at the valley far below. The distant river wound around rocks, trees and patches of verdant green vegetation living off what little water existed in this part of the High Atlas mountains. Thankfully Pete, their travel guide and van driver, had long experience navigating the potholes of this cliff road.

Caroline and her friends were returning from a night under the stars at high altitude, and had journeyed along a meandering trail down from the peaks via intermittent Berber villages, each consisting of mazes of buildings constructed from local materials, stacked up like complex rocky outcrops, and blending into the scenery. Passing through, the hikers had been stopped occasionally by excited villagers to drink mint tea in shady structures, offering the chance to exchange gifts—a welcome rest and a relief from the heat of the trail.

Daydreaming in the van, Caroline was lost in thought, but suddenly the vehicle lurched to a stop, causing all the passengers to brace themselves, holding onto seats as backpacks jostled around.

Right in front of them, a smattering of rock had begun to fall on the road from above. Looking up towards the towering cliffs, they could see motion. Pete the driver thrust the van into reverse. Caroline let out a sudden shriek as she saw a huge tower of the upper cliff-face start to detach. The cathedral of stone slumped and shattered, turning to giant boulders which began to slide down onto the road ahead. Pete reversed further in urgency to get clear. More soil and dry scrub plants from high above collapsed, raining down a mound of debris onto their road and bounced further down the slope, as the whole of the rock face sent a landslide out in front of them.

Pete's rapid reaction had left the friends unharmed, but this was going to be the start of a complex operation because this lonely isolated valley road was the only route back to Marrakesh, and now it was totally impassable beneath a head-high pile of rubble.

Mohammed strode along the dusty mountain plateau with its outcrops of dry bushes. There was only the sound of the light wind and a tinkling of bells as his goat herd followed behind him. Up here on the tops the frequent breeze offered a pleasurable relief from the dry heat.

The plateau gave way to a succession of rocky outcrops as Mohammed headed towards the edge. His cell phone was still not getting a signal, or at least it had been intermittent, which was annoying because his brother Hassan had been trying to call but kept dropping out. Maybe this direction was better. Reaching the outcrops of stone at the escarpment he jumped and climbed down some way, stepping past waist-high boulders, to the point where he could make out the distant river below.

The herd of goats followed Mohammed dutifully, seeming to relish the change of scenery after grazing all day on the plateau. They picked their way easily over the boulders and jumped down the rocky staircase. Goats are natural climbers and are perfectly at home in precipitous mountain regions. Even now, fearlessly, some had walked right out to the extreme cliff edge to gaze down.

As he was about to try once again to reach his brother, Mohammed suddenly heard a boom and noticed a section of the cliff-face start to give way nearby. Quickly, whistling to his goats, he made sure that the herd was following as he urgently bounded back up the steep bank to avoid the chance of being caught standing on unstable and collapsing ground.

After reaching a safer position and looking back, it was just about possible to see the valley road below where a white van was clearly reversing away from the landslide with some haste. Thankfully they too had spotted the danger from falling rocks above them.

Mohammed considered the people down there in the van, who were obviously foreigners. It would be a hard day for them, he thought, knowing their only way out of the mountains and back to civilisation was now completely cut off. Surely a long wait was inevitable until the landslide was reported and the road could be cleared. They would have nowhere to go but to journey back up to the tiny local villages.