On the Haraz mountain

Image24 April – It has been a very active day. I left this morning at 8 with a guide and we climbed up a steep mountain side to the village of Hutayb and from there walked to a second village, al-Kahl, the destination of and Ismaeli Shia Muslim pilgrimage, above all from India. I left the guide in Manakha, where I had a mango shake, then walked up to Hajara in a taxi that took me on the road. I dozed off until 3 pm, but was already musing on the idea that a man gave me, that is to go for a loop walk around several villages on the other side of the valley, the one facing Hudayda, from which I arrived yesterday.

I had someone write down the list of villages I have to go through and set off alone. This time I really tasted adventure, the necessity of solving every doubt whenever I was at a crossroads. However I've always managed to get by because I asked the many peasants at work in the fields, invariably by hand or at most with a donkey. On one occasion several women called out to me from far away as they saw I was taking the wrong way and showed me the path to Juma’a, undoubtedly the most beautiful village I walked by this afternoon. It’s perched on a crag and looks like a little fortress of stone houses close to one another.

ImageIn all it was a walk of three hours, to be added to as many in the morning. I have been training for tomorrow’s trek with my friends. But given that contrary to today I’ll have to carry my backpack as the circuit is not in a loop, I have sought a way to send the unnecessary stuff to Sanaa and found a driver that will leave my bundle in a hotel there. I am left with the strict necessary.