The Gorges of Todra and Dades

A proper Off-road adventure between the Gorges

Once warmth had returned and we had made tea and Jonathan had packed up his tent we headed out for what we figured would be a long day.
We planned to head up past Tineghir and up the Todra gorge, before hopefully finding the bush track over the mountain pass that leads down to the Dades gorge. What a day it turned out to be.....
Such splendour, the walls are vertical and I had to walk up the steepest part of the gorge, otherwise you simply don't experience the scale of it. We were also lucky to be early enough we had the place to ourselves, the vendors were not on the scene to hassle us and it was wonderfully quiet.
There is a hotel in the gorge, which if the snow-melt comes down quick would be an interesting place to stay, this did spoil the gorge a bit as they had a generator running, but the river was clear and we passed through in awe of the surroundings.
The photos maybe do a better job of describing it...we soon after the main part of the gorge (after spotting a very interestingly placed road corner signpost, still upright 50+meters from the road in the gorge....amazing it had ended up like that! The tarmac finished and we ascended into very barren country, stunning it the emptiness, we saw only 1 other vehicle, some German guys in a pick-up, 4 Spanish motorcyclists and a few Berber families until we got to the tarmac at the top of the Dades gorge.
The Berber experience wasn't such a pleasant one as we ended up being spat at for not giving them everything we had, we simply had nothing left, no food and no small cash and to stir debate I don't think it right to just give wantonly, as it creates an expectation of “that's how it should be”, call it right or wrong, but in 10 years of living in Africa I don't believe just giving money to anyone who begs will help anyone in their lives.
It was fascinating to see the folk living a hard nomadic life, living in caves or tents in such a harsh environment, they a a tough people, spoilt somewhat by western tourists.
We reached the highest point on the pass at 2800 meters without real incident and found snow from about 2400 meters, very novel for me, snow in Africa is not the norm!
It was freezing but superb, the road was very rough and rocky, requiring a good amount of skill not to smack the axle housings on the rocks (Bro, you definitely struck there!)
On our way down almost at the tarmac, we came across some German tourists in a Toyota Prado with a Moroccan driver that seemed to be heading up but was having problems, the lock on the rear door was busted and bent and they could not close it, they had no tools and had stopped by a truck to try and get tools from them, there was the remains of some fashionable belts and a neck-tie they had been using to try and hold the door shut, we helped out and got them on their way, having removed part of the door catch and replaced the PVC studded belt and neck-tie with a cut off piece of ratchet strap to hold the door closed.
Coming down on the river bed to the top of the Dades, we came to tarmac after maybe 5 hours hard off-roading and were welcomed by the post card view (see the picture) from the top of the Dades, the hotel at the top is fascinating in it's angles, have a look at the tower at the end, not sure I would sleep in there!!
The river was up in the gorge itself, so some fording was required and we ended up having an English couple who had tried to walk up the side of the flood to reach the other side sitting on the bonnet of the Land Rover to stop them getting rather wet!!
It had been a long and rough day and as we hadn't managed much sleep the night before we figured we would just find a hotel and enjoy, we did a bit of a sprint through Ouarzazate, a very strange town with a tourist/military feel, some huge hotels built in the old style and lots of a military presence, out of town over a very wide Oued Draa (the river from which the valley gets it name) we continued on through the Tizi-n-Tinifitt pass and then we hit pot luck, a little family run affair of a hotel, surrounded by an ancient wall, in Tamnougault, run by a lovely guy who wore a Trilby hat the whole time, even when serving dinner and breakfast, called “Au Jardin de Tamnougault” the stay including dinner, a fantastic hot shower and breakfast was about €20 for both of us and although it took time for dinner in the evening, the hospitality was amazing.
So we did really leave relaxed and energised (and clean!) the following morning, ready for the Sahara!

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