November 9, 2024

Beyond Marrakech, a natural barrier stands majestically as if to border the city, the Western High Atlas. The Ourika Valley is the most accessible in Marrakech, it’s better to live there in the hottest of the season, enough to recharge your batteries in the mountains with some 10 to 15 ° C less than in town.

Road Trip in the High Atlas Mountains:

A road trip, by Tizi-n-Test or Tizi-n-Tichka, offers the most beautiful mountain roads in Morocco. The roads are desert and dominate ghostly monochrome vintage. Web Passthrough the Ourika Valley and climb up to 2100 m at Tizi-n-Test to cross the mountain range and reach Taroudant.

The other road connects Marrakech to Ouarzazate with a mountain pass at 2260m.

Hiking in the Moroccan High Atlas:

In addition to this Ourika valley Day trip where will take full miracles, in the Atlas 3 valleys Marrakech, there are superb walks to do.

Some of these hiking trips require the services of a guide but not all !! If you have a bit of hiking experience of course (we should be careful). Remember to print a color photocopy of the large-scale map via google map before departure. This is the kind of thing that we regret after there. When we discover the price at which they sell us this little piece of paper…

Also beware of thunderstorms in this region, the water in the river canrisevery quickly and trap you. If in doubt, take a guide, in the surrounding  villages you will easily find them.

There is the right guide and there is the wrong guide…

Regarding  guides in Morocco, I do not want to argue but there are real and less true … The real have a map of the Ministry of Tourism with their photo. At a time of all digital and photoshop, one wonders if  it is very useful to appear suspicious with a “paper please” !! “…

Sometimes kids volunteer for a quick visit to a kasbah or palm grove in the hope of earning 3 cents. And you know what ? It is not always very explanatory, of course, but I really like to move at my own pace without worrying about the direction to take. Discover things without being framed.

For history buffs, take a certified guide anyway. Other scan play with fate … One can obviously be unlucky. But in 3 times in Morocco, we practiced a lot of “guides” and we were only disappointed once and yet he was a real guide. But there, for once, it was an accumulation of bad luck. I’ll come back to that when I tell you about the Dades Gorges…

But when it comes to the mountains, it’s something else. For a walk for a day or more, take a guide or even a mountain guide. It will be safer!