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Day 1 :Meeting at the aeroport and transfer to
the hotel or riad in marrakech medina .
DAY
2:
MARRAKECH - KASBAH TELOUET -AÏT BEN HADDOU - OUARZAZATE
Early morning departure from Marrakech south in our 4WD through the Glaoua
countryside and up through exhilarating hairpin bends into the Western
High Atlas mountains and Aït Ourir Taddert (1650m) to alight at the peak
of the Tizi n'Tichka (2260m) so as to take in the vista offered by the
Jbel Toubkal - at 4167m the highest peak in the Maghreb - Jbel Siroua
(3304m), and the second highest peak in the Maghreb - Ighil M'Goun (4071m)
- the Plains of Jbilit and Tidili and of distant Ouarzazate. We start our
descent from the Tizi to the Assif Telouèt and the Glaoui kasbah, where we
stop for a visit of this dramatic red-earthen eyrie, fast crumbling under
the attacks of wind and sun, a labyrinth of passageways, delicate iron
window grilles and finely carved ceilings. As these once all-powerful
brothers, the greatest and most successful of all the Berber leaders and
who ruled this southern region, once said: "To last a long while, our
homes and castles must have a good hat and good boots".
We'll picnic by a spring before continuing on via the Assif Ounila Valley
until we reach the magnificently exotic kasbah and ksour of Aït Ben
Haddou, declared, and rightly so, a World Heritage Site. Here we alight
from our vehicle to visit these various kasbahs, so closely-knit that they
appear to be but one complete building, backed up against the looming
mountain in a stretch of unforgiving hammada. The thick, high, sheer,
elaborately decorated pisé walls, stepped-up housing, turreted,
crenellated ramparts, balustrades and arched 'babs' are a sight not to be
missed. Obviously, here Hollywood has shot many of its films, including,
as everyone will tell you, "Laurence of Arabia". One of the more
spectacular sights in the Atlas ranges, set upon a rock above a
reed-strewn assif, commanding the area for miles around, this kasbah
controlled the route to Marrakech until the French blasted a road through
the Tizi n'Tichka in the late 1920s.
From here we continue south to Ouarzazate and our dinner and overnight
accommodation in the Hotel. Should you feel up to it, you can take a
stroll around this town, still echoing with the atmosphere of the French
Foreign Legion of the 1930s.
DAY
3:
OUARZAZATE - KASBAHS OF TAOURIRT, AMERHIDL AND AÏT YOUL - DADES VALLEY &
GORGE.
After breakfast around the pool, we'll drive to the 100 year old Kasbah
Taourirt for a quick visit of this complex of courtyards, a maze of richly
decorated rooms, alleyways and crenellated towers before setting out
towards the east into what can best be described as 'Beau Geste' country
and the magnificent Valley of a 1000 Kasbahs - the Dadès Valley - the
harshest and wildest of the southern valleys, which makes the sudden
appearance of palmeraies even more dramatic, hemmed in as it is between
the Western High Atlas range and Jbel Sarhro.
We shall stop to visit the fabulous kasbah of Amerhidl (to be found
printed on the current 50 dirham banknote) before stopping for our picnic
lunch in an Auberge restaurant in the Skoura oasis, where Nature puts on
her show of red earth, yellow sand, blue-green waters, green vegetation
and brilliant blue sky.
We continue along this Valley of the Roses, through El Klâa des Mgouna,
(Citadel of the Mgouna Tribe) where thousands of small, pink roses, first
planted by French settlers, are grown to make the rose oil essence - "Eau
de Rose" - so beloved of the Berber people, to continue on up to the ksour
of Aït Youl and a brief visit of this fortified village, tucked up against
the stony slopes with its associated palmeraie, prior to our dinner and
overnight in hotel Aït Youl.
DAY
4:
AÏT YOUL - DADES GORGE - TODRA GORGE - TINEGHIR.
Having chosen to make this comprehensive - and somewhat
"off-the-beaten-track journey in a 4WD, we now get to experience a hike
which comparatively few enthusiasts have made - a hike from the Dadès
Gorge to the Todra (Todgha) across the High and Middle Atlas ranges. After
our typical Moroccan breakfast, we set out up for a 45minute drive up via
a superb grouping of ksours at Aït Arbi, past a region known by the local
Berber people as the "Hills of a Thousand Bodies", as the rock formations
look like human feet. We climb over a little Tizi to Aït Oufi where the
red cliffs of the gorge narrow quite dramatically. We are now on a poor
piste, driving through a small canyon and zigzagging bends and an even
narrower gap to reach Taghia n'Dadès to arrive, some 63km from the mouth
of the Gorge, at Msemrir (1700m).
Here we alight from our jeep to set out for a 5½ hour hike eastwards along
the Tizgui n'Ouadda Valley and rocky outcrops up to the Tizi n'Ouano
(2800m) where we shall stop for our picnic amidst impressively craggy
surroundings - and the occasional golden eagle, rock thrushes, bulbuls,
wheatear - and ground squirrels. From here we continue down to the village
of Tamtatoucht at the end of the Todra Gorge where we rejoin our 4WD.
We shall now drive for some 1½ hours down this fault in the plateau -
giving all the appearance of the earth having being savagely split open by
a great force - to make several photo-op stops on the way, for in the
evening these magnificent rock formations are coloured in bands of pinks,
reds and purples, whilst the ruins of kasbahs and ksours stare silently
down on us.
We continue on down this dusty, bumpy ride past mini gorges in an
amphitheatre of red-ochre and pinkish-grey cliffs to the Source Des
Poissons Sacrées - a pool where the Berber womenfolk come to bathe,
seeking a cure for sterility - to the palmeraies of the Oued Todra and the
main village of Tinerhir for our dinner.night in hotel.
DAY
5:
TODRA GORGE - TINEJDAD VALLEY - ERFOUD - MERZOUGA.
Breakfast tucked away, we set out further east along the Tinejdad Valley -
the stamping grounds of the Berber warriors of the south, the
highly-independent Aït Atta tribe - through palmeraies and stark hills
along a well-surfaced road, occasionally covered with blown sand to leave
the oasis at Mallâab and continue alongside the hammada until we reach the
vast palmeraie of El Jorf. En route we shall see parallel lines of
strange, conical humps, which are really man-made entries to old
underground irrigation channels, and long fields of piles of pointed
stones, which are, in fact, Berber cemeteries covered to prevent the
bodies being raided by the desert jackals and foxes.
From El Jorf we continue to sandblasted Erfoud, a Berber village at the
end of the Assif Ziz Valley to enter the desert hammada via stone and sand
pebble tracks to picnic with some dromedary breeders before setting out
for a hike through the desert to the undeniably impressive high dune of
Erg Chebbi whilst our dinner is being prepared at our bivouac for the
night in nomadic tents in a palmeraie near the centre of Merzouga.
The hike will take us into a sunset to take your breath away; the changing
colours from yellow to purple and then black to a sky resplendent with a
myriad of stars is Nature's Son et Lumière show without a sound. Should
you prefer to ride a dromedary instead of walking, you may arrange through
your guide to pay for one directly to the drovers.
DAY
6:
MERZOUGA - RISSANI - AINIF - TAZZARINE - ZAGORA
After a typical Touareg breakfast, we set out northwards to the quiet
village of Rissani , where a quarter of the population still live in the
17TH century ksar of the Alaouite dynasty, and the last stop of the
caravan routes south to Timbuktu . We stop to visit the Zaouia of Moulay
Ali Cherif - the original stronghold of the Alaouite - and the 19th
century Ksar Akhbar, a grandiose ruin which was once a palace for exiled
rebellious family members and for the wives of the dead sultans. The
access to many of the pisé houses is through underground passageways.
From here we set out towards the west between the Jbel Ougnat range and
the Chorea Hammada, passing through Tikkert n'Ouchchane, and the natural
ford at Ainif, where we turn towards the south from the Jbel Galz (1425m)
until we reach Aït Sâadane, with its small ksar. Here we turn towards the
west and the village of Tazzarine , we will take dirt road to Zagora.night
in hotel.
DAY 7 :ZAGORA-AGDZ-OUARZAZAT-MARRAKECH
We leave zagora towards Marrakech,
thence northwards up through the Drâa Valley to the blood-red village Agdz
(pronounced Ag-a-dèz) to visit its simple yet solidly-designed kasbah and
stop for our picnic between the starkly-eroded tajine pot shaped Jbel
Kissane and a beautiful palmeraie.lunch in ouarzazat andback to the red
city.
Night in hotel or riad in Marrakech.
DAY 8 :TRANSFERT BACK TO AEROPORT |
