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00:01Any time I can stick it to the man in a small way, I do.
00:05Could you start your life all over again?
00:08Leave behind everything you know for something completely different?
00:13It's like, I guess we live in a bit of a pressure cooker.
00:16I'm Ben Fogel, and over the next few weeks,
00:18I'm going to live with the incredible people who've done just that.
00:22Did you ever feel like abandoning the property?
00:25No. It's my home.
00:27Would you say you enjoy the companionship of animals more than people?
00:31Probably, yeah.
00:33In some of the most remote places on Earth.
00:36This is why I love the wilderness.
00:38I'll discover their motivations.
00:40For me, it was just, yeah, you're born, you go to school,
00:44you work all life, and then you die.
00:45The challenges.
00:47There's no way that I was going to put my wife and my children in that house,
00:51the condition that it was in.
00:52Just make sure there's absolutely no electrical current down there.
00:55And find out what it takes to make a new life in the wild.
01:00Hasta la vista, Penny.
01:09Today, I'm on the coast of Morocco, visiting Mark and Achelen,
01:14a couple with a sense of adventure.
01:17I got to do all sorts of crazy things, climbed mountains, led tracks across the desert.
01:24Yeah, and I call my dad and I say, I just need to walk to Colombia.
01:28So, did you do it?
01:29Yes.
01:30And I walked to Alaska.
01:32You weren't, you, Colombia wasn't enough.
01:34And it's given them the courage and endurance to tackle one of the longest projects I've ever come across.
01:41We've been working on it for 17 years.
01:4317 years.
01:45It looked appalling.
01:47I just thought, you mug.
01:50You absolute mug.
01:51I'll discover that the challenges they face.
01:54It's just been getting progressively drier.
01:56And the forest, it's had it, basically.
02:00Are about more than just themselves.
02:02It's not just about how they can weather the storm.
02:06It's how they can help their neighbours also weather the storm.
02:14My journey takes me almost 2,300 kilometres to Morocco, North Africa, and the vibrant city of Marrakesh.
02:24It's then a three-hour drive west towards the coast.
02:30I love this country.
02:32Normally, when I come here, I head to the Sahara or to the Atlas Mountains.
02:37I think of the desert.
02:38But today, I'm going in the opposite direction to the Atlantic coast.
02:46The villages seem to get smaller and smaller as they go by.
02:53And as I get closer to my destination,
02:56I've been told to look out for a pile of stones that marks the way to my host's property.
03:03Au revoir.
03:20This really is the middle of nowhere.
03:22But this is the coordinates I've been given.
03:25There is a stone cairn.
03:26There is a path.
03:28I'm going to follow the route.
03:41After a three-kilometre hike, I finally spy my home for the week.
03:50Wow.
03:52I assume I've come to the right place.
03:54It's a bit grander than I'm used to.
03:57Mark?
03:58Ashilene?
04:03Hello?
04:06I've come to the right place.
04:07Yes, you have indeed.
04:08Hey, Mark.
04:09Hi, Ben.
04:10I'm Ben.
04:10How are you?
04:11How was your journey?
04:11Hey!
04:12How are you?
04:13Very good.
04:13Very nice to meet you.
04:14I'm Ben.
04:15Ashilene, nice to meet you.
04:17Hello, everyone.
04:17How are you?
04:17What's your name?
04:18Gaia.
04:19Hi, Gaia.
04:20Nice to meet you.
04:21Look, we have a tradition in the house.
04:23Okay.
04:24And when somebody comes, we wash their feet.
04:27You've seen my feet.
04:29The house is called the Sarai, and it's from the word caravansarai.
04:32Mm-hmm.
04:33The caravansarais, as I'm sure you know, were the resting places along the Silk Road.
04:37And part of the tradition there was, you know, you wash the feet of the weary traveler.
04:42Well, I apologize in advance.
04:46It feels very strange to have you touching my feet.
04:50I haven't even really met you.
04:55Well, feet is the first thing that we connect.
04:58It feels like it's fast-tracking our friendship.
05:02Welcome.
05:03Thank you so much.
05:04Can I come in?
05:05Yes.
05:0656-year-old Mark was born and raised in the wild Scottish glens.
05:11At 21, he became a soldier before beginning a career as an expedition leader.
05:18It was his wanderlust for remote adventure that steered him into television,
05:23where he lived with remote tribes for months at a time.
05:29But it was the small Mediterranean island of Ibiza where he first met Achelen.
05:36A kindred spirit, she had traveled the entire length of the Americas from her home in Argentina
05:42before arriving in Europe.
05:46In 2007, they decided to put all their efforts into a new kind of adventure
05:51and moved on to an empty piece of land Mark had bought for £18,000.
05:57Hoping to build their dream home, it's taken 17 years to get to this point.
06:04They now have two children, nine-year-old Gaia and eight-year-old Isaac.
06:10So...
06:11Wow, look at this.
06:13Welcome, welcome.
06:14Oh, my goodness.
06:16It's like a cathedral in here.
06:18The Sarai covers 330 square metres, with six bedrooms and multiple living areas.
06:27Did you know it was going to take 17 years when you started?
06:31No, because I had quite a high-paying job at the time, or relatively, and then...
06:36But I lost that work when we'd first put the walls up.
06:40So we knew the money was never going to be the same ever again.
06:43And we were kind of faced with the situation, right, how are we going to do this?
06:46And we just thought, right, well, we're young, we've got energy, let's take our time.
06:51It might take ten years, it might take a bit longer.
06:53We don't have any money, so we'll just make it with whatever money we've managed to put aside each year.
06:59And we made two rules we set ourselves, which were never borrow any money and never hire anyone from outside
07:07the local community.
07:08How skilled were you when you came here?
07:11I knew a little bit of woodworking, and I came from a very sort of DIY-y kind of family.
07:16But I didn't really know any steel work, I'd never welded before, so it was YouTube, really.
07:23We had an internet connection of sorts here from the moment go.
07:27And I can't quite work out how on earth you learn things like building vaulted ceilings with brick.
07:32I mean, it's magnificent, but quite a tutorial online to learn that.
07:36Well, actually, I never found, I made my own YouTube video on how to do that,
07:40because I couldn't find a single video that really fitted the conditions and the problems that I had to cope
07:46with,
07:46in terms of how the walls were made, the strengths, the thrust, and all sorts of things.
07:51So that was a big learning process.
07:52I enjoy engineering things, and that was the real...
07:55Yeah, I wouldn't be able to get away with that in Europe.
07:57I'd have to run it by a hundred different officials and teams of engineers
08:01and get it stamped and approved, but here I could kind of, you know, experiment.
08:11Mark and Achelen wanted the house to feel as if it belongs in its surroundings,
08:17modelling it on a Moroccan casper, which usually demands an interior courtyard.
08:24Oh, wow! This just gets better and better. This is amazing!
08:30We call this the beating heart of the Sarai.
08:32I can see exactly why.
08:36They've had electricity since 2012, when the supply line was unexpectedly extended into their area.
08:44But their water needs to be collected as rainwater or pumped from a well that they dug early in the
08:49house build.
08:51Come, I will show you your bedroom.
08:55Oh, wow. I'm being spoilt here. Thank you.
09:00I will let you two settle in and come to enjoy us later.
09:05Thank you very much.
09:07I think I'm going to like it here.
09:11Their home certainly feels like a desert oasis,
09:16which highlights the barren surroundings they've built on.
09:21I wonder how Mark and Achelen make ends meet and whether the isolation is a concern.
09:28I mean, this really is a labour of love, 17 years.
09:31And I think that labour of love kind of shows.
09:35I can't help but think there must have been some real challenges along the way.
09:42That's what I'm looking forward to finding out over the next week.
09:59I'm only a few hours into my stay in Morocco with Mark and Achelen and their two children.
10:04And I'm already being put to work.
10:08Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.
10:11Their well has stopped pumping water and needs to be checked.
10:16Do you think it's pretty dry down there?
10:18Yeah, I do.
10:18And what I want to know is, are there any wet patches?
10:23And that isn't the only concern.
10:25There's been so little rainfall, the underground tanks used for collecting rainwater have only been full once in the last
10:32seven years.
10:34Has there been a big change in the amount of rainfall since you first moved here?
10:39Yes, there has.
10:41I looked up records back to the 72 or 74, I think it is.
10:46And a dry year then was around anything less than 20, 25 centimetres a year.
10:53When we first came here, the average seemed to be more like 15 centimetres.
10:58But it's just been getting progressively drier.
11:00This year, we had less than 10 centimetres.
11:02Last year, around the same. The year before, around the same.
11:05And the forest behind us there, it's had it, basically.
11:10It's just...
11:12Yeah, just no recharge going on.
11:14As a family, does that mean that you're very careful with your water usage?
11:18Yes, we are. And we ask everyone, and I ask you now as well, very short showers, please.
11:24And if it's yellow, let it mellow.
11:27If it's brown. If it's brown, it goes down.
11:31Everyone knows that one.
11:34The well took two years to build, and is 60 metres deep.
11:39You need to be an experienced climber to get down it.
11:42And Ashlen is exactly that.
11:44I'm assuming you enjoy all of this.
11:46Yes, I love it.
11:48Yeah, I was really nervous when Ashlen first went down the well.
11:51But she's a much more accomplished climber than I ever was.
11:54She's done a lot more.
11:56So...
11:58Yeah, she's fine.
12:01Right, it's fine.
12:02Maybe.
12:05Don't leave me!
12:06Don't leave me!
12:09Just make sure there's absolutely no electrical current down there.
12:12Oh, yeah.
12:13I forgot.
12:13That wouldn't be good, would it?
12:14I forgot.
12:15Electrical current and water.
12:19It's having a very thoughtful husband.
12:20Yes.
12:27At the moment, Mark has a minor shoulder injury from working on the house.
12:31So today, we're being aided by Seema Hamid.
12:34A local who regularly helps the family.
12:38Okay, Seema Hamid.
12:39Yeah.
12:44Good luck!
12:45Thank you!
12:47I hope you find water.
12:50Let's see!
12:57Shall we just see how...
12:59How are you doing?
13:00I'm perfect!
13:02Shall we keep going?
13:03Yes, a little bit more.
13:13Yeah, she should have got to the tunnel by now.
13:16Oh.
13:17Stopped.
13:24How are you doing?
13:26I'm great, and the water is to the top of the tunnel.
13:32I cannot go into the tunnel.
13:34Oh.
13:35Do you hear that?
13:36So it sounds like the water's going up into the tunnel.
13:39It's full.
13:40Wow.
13:40Is that a surprise?
13:42Yes, it is.
13:45It has been recharging.
13:47Which is amazing news.
13:49I'm really surprised.
13:50Because it's, I mean, the well has run dry before.
13:53Can I go up?
13:56Oh, there you are.
13:58Smiling.
13:59Wow.
14:01Yeah, we have water at the top of the tunnel.
14:05Wow.
14:06That's a problem with the pump, then.
14:08But how do you fix the pump?
14:09Do you have to go down to fix it?
14:11No, we have to take it out.
14:13It's a mission, taking it out.
14:14But looking at your facial expressions,
14:16you're much happier that it's a problem with the pump
14:18than it is with the water table.
14:20Absolutely.
14:24It's disheartening to hear that one of the driest regions in the world is getting drier by the year.
14:31I'm beginning to wonder why they picked somewhere that seems so inhospitable to settle down.
14:38So how did an Argentinian and a Scotsman end up here in Morocco?
14:46Well, that's, I mean, Ashlen came down to Morocco completely independently of me several times before.
14:52And I had never been to Morocco before I bought this land.
14:56I bought this completely off.
14:59Unseen?
14:59Unseen.
15:00Without ever having been to Morocco before.
15:01What?
15:02You hadn't even been to the country?
15:04No.
15:04No.
15:05I was looking...
15:06Are you brave or mad?
15:08Well, possibly mad.
15:09But I was...
15:11Most people thought I was mad, certainly.
15:14For the first time in my adult life, I was properly in the black.
15:17And I thought I ought to get in the property ladder in the UK,
15:20but the thought of mortgages and things like that really appalled me.
15:23I thought I want to get somewhere that's relatively cheap, you know, cash in hand kind of thing.
15:29Somewhere that's going to lead me down an interesting path.
15:33And then suddenly I bumped into a guy I'd worked with briefly in the Middle East in London.
15:39And the moment he saw me, he said, ah, the very man.
15:43Can I interest you in a piece of land in Morocco?
15:45And so, and I had literally days to make a decision.
15:48And everyone was like, you must be mad.
15:50You don't know the planning laws.
15:51You don't even know if you're gonna like the people.
15:55And it was a case of putting my money into a virtual stranger's bank account.
15:59And I did it.
15:59Much against everyone's advice.
16:02Wow.
16:02Here we are.
16:03I had, in my head, turned this place into...
16:06Paradise.
16:06Paradise, yeah.
16:07Trickling water, springs, trees dripping...
16:10Palm trees, white sandy beaches.
16:12Belly dances.
16:13Everything amazing.
16:14So, when we walked down through the forest, I walked down through the forest with this guy, Jendal.
16:19And he stopped where our main gate is now and sort of swept his hand empiriously across the landscape and
16:24said, this is your land.
16:26And my, I was, what?
16:29This is your land.
16:31And I think I was, I was in shock.
16:33Um, it looked appalling.
16:36I just thought, you mug.
16:39You absolute mug.
16:41Uh, it was really, uh, just, uh, surprised.
16:46What have I done?
16:47But I came back the next day and, um, met some of the locals, explored the coast and really, almost
16:53immediately began to see the possibilities.
17:08It's my first morning.
17:10And I awake to the familiar sounds of home.
17:13He said, you forget my name, you make a new one up.
17:19And I said...
17:20Are you talking about me?
17:21Yeah.
17:22Good morning, everyone. How are you all?
17:24Good morning.
17:26While Asha Len is busy with the kids, Mark and I have a list of jobs to do on the
17:31house.
17:32This is remedial plumbing.
17:35I hate remedial plumbing.
17:37It's a classic mistake.
17:38I put a...
17:39Fat pipe to thin pipe.
17:40I put a fat pipe to thin pipe and normally we get away with it, but in some moments of
17:44heavy rainfall, we don't.
17:45And it backs up and then it leaks somewhere.
17:48The DIY nature of their 17-year house build means Mark has had to undo many of his early mistakes.
17:56It might fit.
17:58Do you want to measure it again now?
18:00I'm going to measure again, yeah, just to make sure.
18:01Just to be sure.
18:03But they've slowly managed to finance everything by splitting their time between here and Ibiza, working odd jobs in Europe
18:11to pay for materials and local labour in Morocco.
18:15So does that mean you were going back to Ibiza each summer, earning, making as much money as you could
18:20and then coming back here to spend it?
18:22Six months here, six months there.
18:24Summertime in Ibiza, living as cheaply as possible in Ibiza, but still having plenty of fun, but you can live
18:31cheaply there. It is possible.
18:33Were you very careful?
18:34Yeah.
18:35Yeah.
18:35I mean, flask of whiskey in the back pocket, never buying a round, never even partaking of a round and
18:44drinks.
18:44Do you want a drink? No, thanks. No, I'm fine.
18:46Because I didn't want to get into the position of having to buy a round when I knew that one
18:51round of drinks in Ibiza normally is a whole week of See Mohammed's help.
18:58It's that, you know, that's we counted everything in See Mohammed days.
19:01And if we hadn't done that, we would be half finished by now.
19:05And I think if we were half finished by now, we would probably be getting a little bit crazy, ready
19:12to, I don't know, would we have given up? I'm not sure.
19:15I mean, there's got to be a limit somewhere, hasn't there?
19:20Quite difficult to keep a straight line in pipes. You might find if you turn it as you cut. So,
19:25cut a little bit, then turn a bit.
19:28There speaks a man from experience.
19:31Have you worked out the total cost that you've spent over those 17 years?
19:37Yeah, we reckon we're between 250,000 and 300,000 euros, including the price of the land.
19:45So, spread across 17 years. I mean, compared to what you could have done with that back in the UK.
19:51Even here, if we'd taken 300,000 euros and invested, you know, given that to a building company, we couldn't
19:59have got this.
20:00No way.
20:01And presumably, within that amount of money, you haven't factored all the time that you have put into it.
20:08No, and lots of people make that point, you know, what about the time you, you know, you invested in
20:12it?
20:12But I think that's missing the point. We turned it into a lifestyle choice.
20:16We loved it. We had the time. We had the energy. And what a nice way to spend your winters.
20:23Presumably, you're now able to look at all of this and see the love and the blood and the sweat
20:27and the tears that you have poured into every single wall, every part of the house.
20:32Yes. And I know exactly how it all works.
20:36What I was looking for with a piece of land that might lead me down an interesting path. I like
20:40building stuff.
20:43What could I have done with that amount of money in the UK? I've often wondered. Not very much.
20:50It's unusual for someone to embark on such a huge project because it might lead them down an interesting path.
20:59That's pretty good.
21:00And after a well-earned break, I get a chance to ask Mark about where the adventurous spirit comes from.
21:09I had the most extraordinary time in the army. I got to do all sorts of crazy things all over
21:15the world.
21:17I climbed mountains, led treks across the desert, just did all sorts of things.
21:22I was hardly ever in camp. But after a bit, they literally said to me, you have had too much
21:28fun.
21:29It's now time to sign up for a good length of time. And I was a captain by then.
21:34And the captain is basically a desk job.
21:38They said a minimum of six years and we'll give you till tomorrow morning to think about it.
21:42And I said, that's not necessary. Goodbye.
21:46Was that a hard decision?
21:48No, no, no.
21:50I mean, they made it for me, really.
21:52So I didn't want to sit behind a desk, not wearing olive drab.
21:58Did you have a plan at that stage?
22:01Yes, I had had a lot of fun leading expeditions, planning expeditions and leading them.
22:07And I wanted to make what my boyhood hero or heroes were people like Ranulph Fiennes, anyone who'd written a
22:14book on exploration.
22:16I'd read them all. And that's that's who I wanted to be.
22:21Surprisingly, it was the television industry that gave Mark the opportunity to continue his expeditions, becoming an on-screen adventurer.
22:31I ended up working quite a lot for American TV.
22:36Really happy times. Yeah, I loved it.
22:38And then it suddenly just kind of folded around my ears and that was it.
22:43When you say folded around your ears, did you go willingly?
22:48The channel I was working for was sold and a new executive director, this is how it was relayed to
22:54me, walked in.
22:56And apparently they always want to stamp their own kind of personality on programmings and they didn't like ours.
23:04And to be honest, I hadn't done a whole lot to make myself indispensable.
23:09I had thousands of friend requests on Facebook, for example, and I ignored them all.
23:17I kind of disappeared and it was difficult for them to get hold of me to do any kind of
23:23publicity shots because I was just I wasn't interested.
23:27So in many ways, I shot myself in in the foot.
23:34You live and learn.
23:36You perhaps didn't.
23:42There are lots of parallels between Mark's life and mine, certainly when it comes to expeditions.
23:48And for me, I very much see this as another adventure for him.
23:53Albeit not one on the mountain in Papua New Guinea, but with his new adventure as his family.
24:02Mark has been lucky enough to find a wife who is as ambitious and bold as his own dreams.
24:25I'm in Morocco, staying with Mark, Acheleine and their two children, Gaia and Isaac.
24:31The tree house!
24:34And I've been invited to join today's lessons.
24:38And have you got plans of what you want to teach today?
24:41Yes, today I will make them to write something, but everything can change.
24:47Maybe I go to offer that to them and they decide to do much and we will do much.
24:55Or maybe they decide to sing and we sing.
24:58The family have opted to teach the kids in the unschooling method.
25:02It's an alternative form of education where the children decide which subjects they want to learn.
25:09Oh, this is the best classroom, can I say?
25:13Yeah, I'm the king of this place.
25:17Do you have kind of prescribed hours? Is it very informal how you do this?
25:22No, it's very informal. But I like to do at least ten minutes writing, ten minutes math, ten minutes reading.
25:32Gaia, what would you like to learn today?
25:35I would like to write about nature.
25:39And what about nature do you think you'd like to write?
25:43Rocks.
25:44Tell me something about rocks.
25:46Some rocks have lots of lines of different colours.
25:50That means they've been in different parts of the underground.
25:54See, I think we're learning more than we're teaching them.
25:59Which way round is this unschooling supposed to work?
26:01And this is the thing that I like it. I'm learning so, so much with them because they become sometimes
26:08with questions that I don't have any clue.
26:10And I say to them, these days we have the beautiful Google, then so many times I'm like, okay, let's
26:18go to Google it.
26:18And we're both learning. And this is part of the unschooling, who I really like.
26:26They can see that mum so many times is wrong, or the dad so many times is wrong, they can
26:34see us to make mistakes and repair our mistakes.
26:39Just accepting the way that we cannot know everything. And what we don't know, we investigate it. And I like
26:46it.
26:47I've always felt that the relaxing effect of nature makes it a great place to learn.
27:00And the kids seem to be getting what they need for their age.
27:04They study maths, can read and write in Spanish and English and seem genuinely excited by learning.
27:11It works very well at this sort of age, but there is a point at which I think all children
27:17and education has to have some form of structure.
27:22I do wonder, though, what happens when Isaac one day says he wants to be a rocket scientist and he
27:28wants to go off to some top university.
27:32You know, that's where either there's some catch up to be done or these guys prove that unschooling is the
27:40way forward.
27:46The life the couple have created here screams adventurous.
27:50But this doesn't just lie in what they've done, but also how they think.
27:55And I'm curious to know more about how this began for Achelem.
28:00I was studying mechanical engineering, three years, more or less, four years. And I was thinking, what is the purpose
28:10of this life?
28:11And I saw myself being in the school since I was five years old. I was already 21 and I
28:17knew that I need to be another two or three years until my test is finished.
28:21And I saw myself getting a job, working, married, maybe in my 30s, 40s, having two or three kids, divorcing
28:33this man who I don't know who he was.
28:36And I became a little bit mad. And I finished that day at the university and I called my dad
28:43and I said, I just need to clear my mind and I will walk to Colombia.
28:48Of course, my dad was like, Berlin, why don't you finish your career first and after you do whatever you
28:56want?
28:56And I said, no, I promise, I promise, I will walk to Colombia.
28:59I mean, walking from Argentina to Colombia is thousands and thousands of miles.
29:06Yeah, but I think, like, as usual, a young teenage or young adult, you don't think about what you say.
29:15You know, you are in that age that when you think something, you just do.
29:20So did you do it?
29:21Yes. And I walked to Alaska.
29:23I went to Alaska.
29:24Well, Colombia wasn't enough, so you walked to Alaska.
29:27Yeah, I didn't walk all the way.
29:29OK, I did go a lot of hitchhiking.
29:32I climbed a lot.
29:34I crossed rivers.
29:36It was my first amazing trip.
29:41And I...
29:41Solo?
29:41I didn't solo.
29:43That must have been quite a defining journey.
29:45Yeah, it was a beautiful journey.
29:47I think, also, I discovered that it was not very difficult to travel.
29:53I discovered that I was me.
29:58It was absolutely me.
30:00Yeah, I discovered myself, who I really was.
30:04And I remember this freedom just to be who I really was, me.
30:17This morning, our wake-up call comes from a local fisherman.
30:21Hi.
30:22Oh, wow.
30:23Hello.
30:23Assalamu alaikum.
30:24Hi, it's Mr Ben.
30:25Ben.
30:26Ben.
30:27Yeah.
30:27Abdelmalek.
30:28Hello, Abdelmalek.
30:30He knows to come to the family first, as they always pay market rates.
30:35And it saves him travelling 24 kilometres to town.
30:39And it's a good catch today.
30:41Five, six kilos.
30:44Oh, okay.
30:45Wow.
30:47He say that he think like he have ten kilos today.
30:51Isn't that fair, Leon?
30:53Good.
30:54Alhamdulillah.
30:55Alhamdulillah.
30:56And every two...
31:00He say that every time he has one kilo, he's happy.
31:04Then today he have ten, he's more than happy.
31:09I hope he doesn't have to go on any further.
31:11Let's hope we bite all the fish.
31:13But this is what happens on here.
31:14We, you know, we're pretty remote.
31:16And it's kind of amazing that the fisherman comes up here
31:20and can actually, you know, make a living.
31:25Abdelmalek.
31:25The way Mark and Achelein earn money has evolved since their early days working summers in Ibiza.
31:32They now buy, restore and make items to sell in Europe.
31:37Keeping the money in the local economy by only employing locals.
31:44But one thing the couple have kept for themselves is a 100-year-old Bourbador,
31:49which Achelein picked up in a flea market in Marrakesh.
31:54It needs new hinges and some of Mark's DIY skills, though maybe not mine.
32:01Almost.
32:02A bit more?
32:03Yeah.
32:05You can tell I don't do this very often, Mark.
32:11Perfect.
32:12There we go.
32:12There we go.
32:13And actually no metal in there.
32:14I gave you the bluntest, oldest...
32:15Can I just sell you that?
32:17Yeah, because...
32:17You were just testing me.
32:19Generally, every time you work with this old stuff from the scrap markets,
32:22it's so full of old nails...
32:24Yeah.
32:25You didn't want to damage a new saw.
32:26I didn't want to damage a new saw, yeah.
32:31See Mohammed, Mark's right-hand man, is helping again today.
32:36He's been with Mark since the beginning.
32:40How important is it to have help like See Mohammed?
32:43I couldn't have done this on my own.
32:45How far does See Mohammed live?
32:47He lives on the war.
32:48He's just on the Western War.
32:50Literally right here.
32:5210 metres away, yeah.
32:54The Sarai sits between two tiny neighbouring villages,
32:58comprising of only 39 households.
33:02And how easy was it for you to integrate within the two communities?
33:05It was always quite easy in that the hospitality was always fantastic.
33:09I never experienced any animosity here.
33:12Never a feeling of us and them.
33:16And presumably the fact that you were so hands-on
33:18also helped people understand your role here.
33:23Absolutely, yeah.
33:24I think that was a major part
33:26because they have seen us since minute one toiling in the sun.
33:31And most of the men around here have at some point or other
33:34been sweating alongside me.
33:36We did make a conscious decision we will keep all the money that we spend,
33:41as much as possible, in the community.
33:43And I think that's been appreciated as well.
33:46So, you know, we've been an important part of the economy here for quite a long time.
33:55Is this the moment of truth, Mark? Do you think we can test it?
33:57Yeah, this is the moment of truth.
33:59OK.
34:01Oh, it's going to be heavy, isn't it?
34:03It's going to hit the floor.
34:04The lured, Maharas.
34:07Ah, OK.
34:08OK.
34:08What's he saying?
34:09He's saying the wood has collapsed on the other side,
34:11so we need to do a bit of reinforcement.
34:14Is this representative of how this took 17 years to build?
34:21More or less.
34:23Yeah, more or less.
34:25Every aspect of their house build has been a challenge.
34:29From a 100-year-old door that doesn't fit...
34:34..to a 40-year-old ex-fire engine
34:37that's become their lifeline to the outside world.
34:42This road is actually very dangerous.
34:45Yeah, Ashlen hit a cow two years ago on this road at night,
34:49just up in front, going very slowly, thank God,
34:53otherwise she wouldn't be here.
34:54And the cow got up, wandered off into the forest.
34:59Slightly inconvenience, that's all.
35:02But I had a big repair job to do and luckily no injuries.
35:08It's a 30-minute drive to the nearest market.
35:11And the materials to fix the door
35:13can be added to the family's weekly shopping list.
35:18They have to come here for essentials
35:20that they can't get from the locals.
35:23Yes, show me something.
35:25Oh, look, all the seeds. Look at these.
35:29Seeds, yeah, but we don't have enough water
35:30to grow all that stuff.
35:33But the family are now having to rely on the town market more and more.
35:37Lower rainfall is making farming less viable for their neighbours.
35:42Yeah, not many of these would pass muster in Sainsbury's, would they?
35:46No, they wouldn't. What do you think?
35:48Yeah, it's fine. It's good.
35:50And the small community is shrinking,
35:53as locals are being forced to move away to look for a better life.
35:57Does that worry you, those changes that are happening?
36:00For sure. I mean, yeah, I mean, the writing is on the wall for the communities around us, really.
36:05If there's not a lot of living on the beach, then really there's not a lot of living full stop.
36:11And what's the bigger impact for you guys then, as a family?
36:15It's not going to affect our operation, really, because it's not like there's nothing to buy.
36:21It's really just the relationship with the locals is diminishing because there are fewer locals around.
36:29And there's less of a reason to be negotiating over a fish right outside the kitchen.
36:35I don't think there's anywhere I've been in the world now where people haven't been affected by some sort of
36:39change to the environment, the climate.
36:41Are you doing anything on a personal level?
36:44Back in 2013, I started a charity which was all about helping the farmers transition over to regenerative agriculture
36:53and techniques that would use less water, just be different from those that they'd practiced for years.
36:59But as the years have gone by, we've achieved very little.
37:03And I have come to realize as my Arabic has improved and my sense of the local politics has improved,
37:10I realized that as the older generation die off and the younger generation take full control of the land,
37:17there's no way I can get them to see value in the land as an agricultural project.
37:24They quite rightly really recognize that the land, this is the younger generation,
37:30the true value in it is its sea view and people like me coming and putting big houses up.
37:38So, really, my charity, the wheels have fallen off.
37:47Over the last 17 years or so, Marco and Echelen have created the perfect oasis.
37:52The problem is that the changes that are happening to the landscape are affecting all of their neighbors
37:57and if they don't do something about it, they are going to be left here alone.
38:03And I don't think that's what they really want.
38:06And I think that's a real challenge for them because it's not just about how they can weather the storm,
38:13it's how they can help their neighbors also weather the storm.
38:25I'm nearly at the end of my stay in Morocco.
38:32And I feel like I'm becoming one of the family.
38:36What is this? How have I missed this?
38:38Gaya, what do we do here?
38:40Yoga and dance.
38:42Yoga and dance.
38:50You're not supposed to laugh.
38:55Over 17 years, Marc and Echelen have painstakingly created an oasis in a tough environment.
39:03But I've discovered that the dry climate is having a growing impact on the local community.
39:11So, to boost the local economy, the couple have embarked on a brand new venture.
39:17In the last year, they've opened their home up to retreat leaders,
39:21who rent the house and offer classes to tourists,
39:24from yoga and tantra to art and dance.
39:32With the Sarai now being used this way, I'm keen to find out what the future holds for this family.
39:43Marc, you have packed your life.
39:44Is there part of you that just thinks,
39:47I'm a little bit tired now, I just want to just ease up for a bit?
39:54Not really. I mean, I'm a little bit tired of building, I have to say.
39:57I kind of, I want to finish.
40:00I look despondently at my list, which just keeps getting longer and longer and longer.
40:04And I just cannot, I've lost the beginning of it.
40:06I mean, everywhere I look, there's things I haven't finished.
40:10And Echelen's always adding new stuff onto the list.
40:12It's just like, God, Wesley's going to finish.
40:17And it probably never will. It's a big house.
40:19As they say, these things are never finished.
40:22Just like the door you and I were putting in.
40:23I mean, yeah, but what would I do if there was nothing, if that wasn't around?
40:27Well, I'd find something to do, for sure.
40:31If I come back in 10 years' time, where do you think, where should I go to, to find you
40:37both?
40:38Who knows?
40:39Yeah, 10 years.
40:40I've got to see.
40:41No idea.
40:42I like the idea of Argentina, I have to say.
40:46Echelen's got this tiny little parcel of land there, on a mountainside, completely the opposite to this.
40:52And it could be the perfect foil to this place, especially as the children start to get into their teenage
40:57years.
40:59And particularly Gaia.
41:03We're in a very conservative, rural, Muslim culture here.
41:10Because we live outside of a town or a city.
41:13So it's a little bit tricky, where Gaia's concerned.
41:19But yes, somewhere to escape to, somewhere to get a bit of a different outlook, different perspective.
41:25But yeah, it would be an interesting...
41:27I like change. I do like change.
41:29And we've been here a long time.
41:30I mean, I never imagined that I would, when I bought this bit of land, that I would be here
41:36for so long.
41:38It surprised me.
41:39And depending on what happens, what the future holds, what about the building itself?
41:45Would you sell that?
41:46I don't think so.
41:48I feel that it's something, like, we create, like, a part of us.
41:52Then, yeah, we'll be, wherever we are, we'll be great that we, we have this place to come back and
42:01to see the neighbors and to see the people who, for me, will be nice to see how the community
42:07responds in 10 years' time.
42:09And where the community are with the benefits of the house.
42:15And at the moment, because we start to rent only a year and a half ago, it's a very short
42:21time to see that.
42:24But I really believe that the community will be a little bit more prosperous in 10 years' time.
42:36I'm surprised that they're thinking of leaving Morocco.
42:39They clearly care about the local community.
42:43But as an explorer myself, I understand the pull of a new place.
42:48And as a father, the needs of the kids as they get older.
42:53But if I'd put 17 years of my life into making an incredible home like this, I think I'd find
43:00it difficult to leave.
43:02I think this place is a part of their relationship.
43:09I can't decide whether it's a third child or a third partner in their relationship.
43:16But there really is a love affair with all of this.
43:20You know, they roll their eyes when they talk about the 17 years of building to get to this point.
43:27I think they have loved every single part of it. They really have loved the journey.
43:31It hasn't just been about completing that adventure.
43:35Because I don't think this adventure will ever be completed.
43:38I could imagine them heading off and doing other things.
43:42But I think this will always be a big part of their lives.
43:47Oh!
43:49Bye, Isaac. Thank you.
43:51Ashilane, thank you.
43:53Very nice to meet you.
43:55Likewise, Mark.
43:57Thanks, Ben. Great fun.
43:59I have enjoyed this week so much.
44:01Thank you. It's been fun, haven't you?
44:03I'm sure our paths will cross somewhere.
44:05Argentina, Scotland, Ibiza, maybe here in Mark.
44:08I should think so, yeah. Somewhere.
44:10Stay being yourselves.
44:11Thank you. You're pretty unique.
44:12Have a lovely trip.
44:14Thank you so much.
44:15You too.
44:16Bye, everyone.
44:16Thanks very much, Ben.
44:17Bye.
44:18Bye.
44:19Bye.
44:22Next time, I'm heading to the southernmost tip of Spain.
44:26Absolutely beautiful.
44:28To meet an unconventional nomad.
44:30I'm a barefooter.
44:31I like to pee on the ground.
44:32I like to poo on the ground.
44:34I'm an ecologist.
44:35What's that?
44:35I take care of my poop.
44:38And discover the sacrifices he's made to maintain his unique way of life.
44:42The fact that I'm happy to be alone is not always good for intimate relationships.
44:49And you can see that new next Tuesday at 9.
44:52How did Anne Boleyn's tragic fate impact the reign of her daughter, Elizabeth I?
44:57Jason Watkins investigates in a Tower of London special,
45:00The Prisoner Queen's brand new tomorrow at 9.
45:03New true crime next in A Killer Makes a Call.
45:06I'm a righteous girl.
45:13To meet indebted for the
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