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tlas Mountains

 

November 21-25, 2011








Moroccan flag




Atlas Mountains from Route N10
Atlas Mountains from Route N10

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Errachida to Ouazazate in Four nights
Errachida to Ouazazate in Four nights

Our visit to the Atlas Mountains consisted of a series of one-night stands: We'd get up in the morning, take a one or two hour bus to the next place, try to be settled in before noon, and do some mild treking in the afternoon. In that way we saw bits of Errachidia, the Todra Gorge, Boumalne, and the Dades Gorge, and Ouarzazate. We missed the sand dunes at Merzouga and Zagora and the Draa valley,

Before arrival in Marrakesh we had only the vaguest idea of where we would go in Morocco and had no fixed schedule. After a day and a half in Marrakesh we settled on a counter-clockwise loop that would start with Ouazazate and made a hotel reservation there. That's when we got the first idea of the problems to come: the hotel clerk asked if we had fixed transportation. We said no; we'd heard it was easy to get a bus. The response was that yes, normally it was easy but at the soon to arrive holiday Eid Al Adha it would be nearly impossible. And so it was.

Instead we made a clockwise tour, starting at Essaouira and ending at Ouazazate. The negative was that we spent time in Chefchaouen that in retrospect we'd rather have spent in the mountains and dessert. The good news was that it was three weeks later and we got to see the mountains covered in snow which we found so appealing. The bad news was that it was really, really cold. Jan just wanted to escape at the end!

And in a sense that is what we did: after three nights in places with less than adequate heating we moved into the Ouarzazate Ibis Hotel, filled with all the mod-cons, including heating. (Veronica, who was in Ouazazate 30 years ago says (as of course we knew) the only comforts to be had then were Berber tents and sleeping bags.) And warmed, the next day we went off to the comforts of Marrakesh.



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March 22, 2011