If September hinted at the end of my time this year In Loubar, October told me loud and clear, as Jim Morrison would say…”This is the end, my beautiful friend”…well, not quite, but I know what I mean.

Paragliding in Southern Morocco..could we do this in the Rif?.

I’m writing this up in Tamlalt, along the coast south of Agadir, where I’m doing some paragliding with Giles at Nigels’ place nigel@paraglidingmorocco.com and I’ve just finished a 20 minute flight….yes, it really was amazing, and yes, it must be something that I will look at as an option from Xaouen and why not, Fez and the Middle Atlas. Certainly there’s interest from fliers here to look at opening up new sites….how much fun would that be?

But of course, I’m way ahead of myself, because it’s January 2015 and a lot has happened…that’s one of the things about keeping a blog…you realize that lots of things happen…but I digress far too far down my own navel….

Let’s get back to Loubar.

Image of Finn.

There have been lots of discussions with neighbours about putting in a road up to Loubar and to the farm. Everyone wants one for all the obvious reasons that come with greater accessibility….which is exactly why I’m still so reluctant, I still want to keep Farm Finn just far enough away from every day traffic, to ensure it remains…peaceful.

The reality of this may be challenging, perhaps too challenging for guests, but I like that you’ll get picked up by donkey, or have to walk through a village, past local homes, fresh water springs, traditional bread ovens, herds of goats and fields of marijuana, to get here. I think that all hints at the “get away from it all” nature of the place, that I want it to become. Not too much…but enough!

Harvest time in Loubar demands attention.

Having said that, as the build started coming to an end, winter neared and my presence reduced, I had to start thinking of what materials we could get on the land for next year and how we could build a well, given that Sept/October offered us the lowest water table levels, being the end of the dry season.

The difficulty is that nearly everyone is focused upon bringing in their own harvest, including Ghalli and thus getting him to transport materials had become a painful affair of conflicting priorities…you need to understand that up here…there are seasonal priorities and now is the biggest priority……the marijuana harvest.

The chance to build a temporary piste up to the Farm…..grabbed with two hands!

So when I was asked if I’d contribute to a seasonal piste that would help neighbours get out their harvest from the mountain, but also enable me to truck up everything I’d need for next year and dig the hole for the well, which would take about 3 months if dug by hand…I jumped at the opportunity.

Mohammed the water diviner at work on Farm Finn.

Of course you can’t just dig a well anywhere, you need to know where to dig first, where is that water? There are a couple of spots on the farm that either have water already on the surface, such as the lower well in the fig orchard (which will I hope become a shaded plunge pool) or should have water not too deep below, such as on the lower field.

But I needed a well at the top of the land. How to find out where it should/could be? Well the unanimous opinion for a tried and trusted method was to bring in the local water diviner, who’s day job was running a grocery shop at the bottom of the hill.

Waafi’s well under construction, Can I have one as well please?

And thus Mohammed (of course) came up on to Loubar, picked a branch from an olive tree and began to walk across the land…all eyes focused upon him. Up and down he went, back and forth, his twig twitching down wards periodically. “Hinner, mumpkin ashra meters”……….”hinner, mumpkin tamania”…..

He found several spots between 8 – 10 meters deep, which felt deep to me, I thought it might be closer, but it’s the end of the dry season and if everyone else has absolute faith in his powers of divination, why shouldn’t I? It certainly worked for Waafi, who got his brothers over to help construct his well almost immediately…good on him.

Finn celebrates l’Eid at Yahyaa’s place.

The beginning of October was also the time of Eid and so Finn and I spent the next few days with Ghalli and his family eating more and more goat. It’s an amazing experience and far from being traumatized by the ritual slaughter, I think Finn quite liked it, certainly, as ever, he loved hanging out with his new mates in Loubar, running around fields, climbing trees, chasing dogs, goats and chickens, getting dirty and staying up late before returning to base camp for the last few nights before packing up and officially ending the year.

Finn, Yahyaa and Habiby help to pack up base camp ready to begin again next year.

Unfortunately it seems that it was all too much for poor old habiby and on the way back to Fez she finally broke down, leaving us having to use a tow truck. Another adventure for Finn..perhaps the beginning of the end for Habiby. That really would be a milestone.

Habiby might be on her last legs.