A chance encounter and a single frame

[caption id="attachment_650" align="alignnone" width="379" caption=" "][/caption] We're about to leave Marrakech and head to Essaouira for a few days... which got me reminiscing about a previous trip we did (which you can read more about here), and thinking about how appealing it can be to just jump in a car and drive in Morocco... Five years ago we went on road trip around Morocco. It ended with us stuck in the Marrakech medina behind a donkey with obvious flatulence problems, my navigator Lara irritated for having gotten us into this mess, and neither the mother-in-law nor the snowboard in the back providing much entertainment. It could have made for a bad road movie script. On that journey - in which we covered 1011 kms! - we would often meet children along the way. Or rather they would 'meet' us by suddenly appearing out of the middle of nowhere, and running out onto the road to greet us. The more miles we did the more we prepared ourselves for these strange encounters, Lara gathering a bag of biros, writing pads, water bottles, snacks, and sweets - but only as a last resort, as the last thing these kids with their bad teeth needed was sugary treats. One day we were driving in a desolate landscape, more like a moonscape, of endless arid rocky plains backed by a craggy mountain range. As we drove along we noticed a small clump of palm trees – the only trees we had seen for hours. I stopped the car to frame the trees to create a stark photograph with the trees punctuating just how barren the landscape was. As I took the photo I heard voices. Two children and a donkey appeared out of nowhere. It was not clear where they could possibly have come from, as there was nothing around. We exchanged greetings in Arabic, gave them some gifts, and I made one frame before they rode off. Back then I was still using slide film and it was my last frame on that roll. If you look closely between the boys you can still see the palms I had been photographing. For some time I used this photo as the desktop background for my laptop. It always reminded me of the magic that comes from the chance encounters that Morocco is particularly gifted at giving. Let's see what today brings...