We woke to a chilly morning, colder than it has been for a good few days, which we put down to being in this valley.
It soon warms up when the sun comes over the mountain. We had breakfast outside, then set off for a walk along the riverbed, into the local town of Abaynou.
The town was very quiet, with hardly any shops. A group of men, one Dutch, sat chatting rather loudly, with the Dutch guy making most of the noise. We said hello in the usual trio of French, Arabic, and English translations. Then we walked to what seemed to be the end of the street and turned to come back to find some bread for lunch.
The small shop we walked past earlier didn’t sell bread, but the man pointed to the street opposite and said it was at the green door on the right, the boucherie.
We passed the Dutchman again, drinking a strong coffee and smoking a cigarette, with the Moroccans, and the Dutchman asked where we were from. He had apparently lived in the town for 20 years, and we asked about the place and why it was so quiet. It apparently had, what he called, a hot swimming pool, which turned out to be a spa with hot spring water. This was a main attraction to the town, but since Covid it never reopened and was now in disrepair.
He took us across the street over the river to a small gulley with running water and steps going down. This was the hot spring water that would have fed the spa pool.
Above was a sign in Arabic, which, translated, read, “For men only.
For bathing and ablution (washing before prayer) only.
It is not permitted to use this place for any other purpose, such as cooking or sitting.
Thank you for your understanding.”
I did have a feel of the water, and it certainly was warm, but I didn’t pray afterwards.
We then walked across the main street to the green door in a side street. You could just about make out it was the boucherie by the small sign next to the door. We went in, dark as these places often are, and bought out two breads from the lady.
Then walked back for lunch and sat in the sun chatting to our newly arrived English neighbours, until the sun went over the mountain.
