Ourika Valley "Easy Way Up"


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Published: June 28th 2012
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After a great breakfast of freshly squeezed orange juice, strong black coffee and these incredible small spongy pancakes with butter (I don't think I'll ever manage to find our what they were called!) we were collected from the Riad and driven off in a mini-van. Out of the 10 of us on register, 2 fell foul of food poisoning and were quicky dropped back off to their hotel, 1 managed to get lost whilst hunting for a bottle of water in the souqs before and left and her two friends then had to chase after her and they too never returned! I hope they managed to make it out of there! None the less, with a near empty mini-bus and what was turning out to be our own personal guide we headed out of the city walls and towards the high snow covered mountains in the distance.

The first 30 minutes or so were quite uneventful until the we started twisting and turning through the mountain roads. In general the roads were quiet and well maintained and this ride didn't have any of the rollercoaster feel about it that bus trips in the centre had. 2 hours later we were near our destination, and save for a few stops to take photos of the views and meet and a baby camel (who looked rather sad chanined to her post 😞) the drive was over before we knew it.

We parked up along a fast flowing very shallow water way with dodgy looking roap bridges criss-crossing the chanel and offering the only means of entry to the hill side hotels and restaurants. Hopping across the river we started our climb into the mountains. We initially thought it would be a few minute walk along a path but just 10mins in we were climbing up slippery wet rocks following a string of tourists (Western and Arabic) to reach the waterfall....this certainly wasn't in the guidebook but definitely added to the fun!

The waterfall itself was very impressive and whilst not particularly tall it was incredibly powerful and fell into a small pool shallow enough for the brave to stand under the falls and enjoy a natural massage! After snapping away we climbed up yet more incredibley slipper rocks and even the odd improvised ladder to reach an impromtu OJ seller who served us some of the nicest orange juice ever (probably more to do with the need for a drink after the climb up than the quality of the oranges!). After a rest we followed a more gentle path back down to the village for a bite to eat and the mini-bus home.

We arrived back in the Riad around 9 hours after leaving and enjoy a very well deserved rest and a drink and watched the sun go down from the roof terrace to the sound of the Mosque calls to prayers!


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