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Looking across the wide Melwiya (Moulouya) plain, the long crests of Ayyachi–Masker visibly curve to dip beyond horizons. The scale is vast. In earlier centuries travellers heading along the Trek es Sultan, the road from Fes to the Tafilet and the Sahara, were so impressed with the snowy majesty of Ayyachi that they assumed it was the highest summit in the country.

Nearing the summit of Saïd ou Ali, Jbel Ayyachi

Ayyachi was first ascended by an outsider, the renowned French explorer de Segonzac, in 1901. With the penetration from the north-east the French had the mountain as an enviable playground. Peyron tells a tale of the period when Tounfit was captured, in 1932, and a group of important military staff toiled up Ayyachi (much of it on mules) only to find a soldier pedalling round the summit on a bicycle. They were not amused.

We headed for the mountain in May 1992 following our traverse of Bou Naceur and Bou Iblane (Route 2), although we had had a couple of relaxing days in Fes in between. From such descriptions as we had, we started from Midelt and had a camionette the 12km into Tattiouine (Tattiwiyn), intending to hire a mule there. Tourists had queered the pitch by paying more for an hour’s ride than the standard rate for a full day, and we stood for over an hour while Ali argued prices. We were not even invited to tea somewhere, very unusual. And all too soon the shy children of remote areas became brazen scroungers, their greeting a ‘Bonjour, un dirham!’