Desert Adventures

Desert adventures

Starting from Ouarzazate, the Dadès and Drâa river valleys with their picturesque kasbahs and  lush oases thread through spectacular rocky landscapes towards the desert, ending in the expansive sand dunes of Erg Chebbi.

By Andrea Kirby and Jacques Combeau

Ouarzazate is the crossroads of southern Morocco. To the north is the caravan route to Marrakesh - for centuries, used by vast camel trains to transport goods from sub-Saharan Africa to the Moroccan cities; east is the valley of the Dadès river, and to the southeast, the valley of the Drâa.

Although the caravan routes go back hundred of years, Ouarzazate is a functional town, built under French rule in the 1920s; only the Kasbah of Taorirt, a magnificent castle-village built by the Glaoui tyrants, hints at the rich history of the area.

         'the caravan route north to Marrakesh ran through the valley,
                    taking salt south, and bringing ivory,
                          gold, and slaves from south of the Sahara'

Head 30 km north on the Marrakesh road, though, and you'll find the Kasbah of Ait Benhaddou – a huge fortress complex, practically a town in itself. Its dark red mud brick walls, its towers and battlements, stand out strikingly against the green of the date palms. Once, the kasbah would have teemed with life – the caravan route north to Marrakesh ran through the valley, taking salt south, and bringing ivory, gold, and slaves from south of the Sahara; now only a few families still live here.

There are more kasbahs  and ksours throughout the valleys of the Drâa and Dadès.  The kasbah is a fortress, sometimes built to house a single family with its retainers; the ksour, similar in its exterior appearance, is an entire village surrounded by its castellated wall.  Their smooth, sloping mud walls, their battlements, their narrow streets all seem ancient; but you can't tell the age of these buildings from their appearance.  In any case, mud-brick buildings need to be rebuilt and remade perennially; they are never 'finished', always waiting for another coat of render, always seeing it washed away in the winter rains. In places, ruined houses are sinking back into the soil of which they are made.

The Drâa valley

From Ouarzazate, the road through the Drâa valley leads first up into the mountains, over the pass of Tizi n'Tinififft, then down to a series of oases, strips of dark green filling the valley bottoms.  Water is channelled through the oases in a complex system of watercourses. At first, the oasis seems to be entirely natural; but soon, you start to pick out its patterns; date palms grow at the edge of the valley, sheltering the fruit trees, almonds and figs from the dry winds. Then in the centre, nearest the river, is a chequerboard of small fields, their light fresh greens standing out against the darker foliage of the palms. Early in the year, the rivers flow strongly, and almond blossom scatters the oases with white.

    'early in the year, the rivers flow strongly,
and almond blossom scatters the oases with white'

The village of Adgz – a marvellous unpronounceable name, like some acronym the meaning of which has long been lost – has one long street of blood red buildings, a palmeraie, and kasbahs. Then comes Tamnougalt, with its dramatic, clustered ksour, scored with geometrical decoration, home of the Mezguita Berbers. The valley now is wide, bordered by cliffs, the river bed scoring the bottom of the valley with multiple channels which it fills only when in spate.

And at last the road brings you to Zagora,  in the middle of a huge expanse of fertile land, with palm groves and fields all around it.  Here is the famous sign that says 'Tombouctou 52 jours' - 52 days to Timbuktu, by camel - though the Algerian border is now closed, making the direct route impossible. Zagora grows the best dates in the country – or so the locals will tell you; from velvety fawn through to gleaming black, a huge variety of sizes, colours and tastes.

In Amazrou, to the south Berbers keep the Jewish tradition of silversmithing alive. Further south-east is Tamegroute, where local potters work and stacks of unglazed 'biscuit' wait for the kilns. Local copper is used for the green glaze – a trade secret brought here by potters from Fez. Here, too, is the Zaouia Naciri, a sanctuary that was home to an influential Sufi order, and still houses a library with ancient manuscripts, some written on gazelle skin.

The Dadès valley

The Dadès runs east from Ourzazate, and while it's a harsh valley, pinned between the Atlas mountains and the volcanic Djebel Sarhro range, its oases are lush, green against the dark red of the rock.  It's narrower and more dramatic than the Drâa valley; follow it all the way, and it will lead you to the edge of the Sahara.

              'olives, almonds, figs and grape vines grow in the shadow
                        of the many scattered ksour and kasbahs'

30 km from Ouarzazate is Skoura, with its dense palm grove, an oasis where olives, almonds, figs and grape vines grow in the shadow of the many scattered ksour and kasbahs.  Here is Kasbah Amerhidl, perhaps the grandest of all the kasbahs in the valley. Built in the seventeenth century, it's still pristine, the geometrical patterns crisply incised on its walls resembling those on Berber carpets and jewellery.

Further up the valley lies El Kelâa des Mgouna, famous for its rosewater. If you're here in May or June, you'll see the rose festival; otherwise, the town is unexceptional.

So far on this journey, the road has run between mountains, but at  the village of Boumalne du Dadès you begin to feel for the first time that you're on the edge of the desert. South of here is the desert fringe, the hammada; a bedrock plateau with blowing dust. It's a stony desert;  not the rounded, sensual dunes of the imagination but rough, rugged land. The air smells of dry rock and dust. 


                      'the sky is huge, the landscape almost empty,
              except where the Ait Atta Berbers still
                                pitch their black tents'

From Boumalne, tracks lead up into the massif of Djebel Sarhro.  From the brick red of the Dadès valley, through valleys of purple and mauve rock, the tracks lead to wastes of stone desert and the black granite cliffs and volcanic pinnacles of the Djebel. The sky is huge, the landscape almost empty, except where the Ait Atta Berbers still pitch their black tents (while the Atlas is under snow in winter, Djebel Sarhro can be trekked from October to April; allow four or five days for a tour of the whole area).

North of Boumalne, the valley of the Dadès turns into a gorge, gradually narrowing; the road turns fantastic hairpins, and strange rock formations ooze as if the landscape has melted in the desert sun. And yet this is only a taste of what you'll find at Tinerhir, the base for exploration into the Todra gorge. Here, one of the Glaoui's kasbahs dominates the palm grove; ksour scatter the slopes above. Alfafa livens the valley with its flash of green;  you'll see women carrying drooping loads of it up to the pastures where the livestock are kept.

Here the rock is orange or pinky grey, depending on the time of day and the way the sun catches it.  Where the gorge narrows, the sun hardly reaches the bottom in winter; it's cold and dark. But in summer, the morning sun lights the valley up with splendour. A few small hotels crowd under the rocky overhang; the gorge is 300 metres deep, and just ten metres wide at one point.

You'll find tour buses arriving here steadily throughout the day, and traders with their stalls – yet take the track a few hundred metres further, and you'll be almost alone.  Or stay here, in one of the small hotels, and wake early to see the dawn gradually bring the colours of the rock alive.

                         'a first sense of the desert; you can feel its heat,
                  its awesome emptiness and magnetism'

Further east, Erfoud is a French town of no great interest – it's the landscape that is the attraction. There are dust storms, and tiny dustdevils, and you get a first sense of the desert; you can feel its heat, its awesome emptiness and magnetism, its mirages waiting to suck you in.

And one and a half hours drive from Erfoud, just beyond Merzouga, at Erg Chebbi, the desert is waiting for you. Here are the classical desert dunes – magnificent orange crescents against an intense blue sky.  They are always changing, always virgin;  the wind shapes and reshapes them, sometimes exposing the bedrock underneath, sometimes whipping up a sandstorm that reduces visibility to almost nothing.

And yet this isn't a completely dry landscape. In spring, a seasonal lake appears to the northwest of Merzouga, peopled by flamingos, reflecting the sky in its shallow waters. And after the rare rainshowers, the desert blooms, with short-lived delicate flowers, pink and purple against the sand.

While Merzouga and Erg Chebbi can get quite touristy, again you'll find that you can escape the bustle quite easily. Wander a few dunes away, and you're on your own beneath the huge, intense blue sky.

You could, if you want to take the time, give up three or four days to take a long distance camel trek. (Camels are like cats;  yes, they spit, and no, they won't do what you tell them -  but they can also be affectionate and charming, with their huge brown soulful eyes and gentle lips).

You'll eat by the fire in the evening and see the stars shimmering in a night sky untainted by light pollution or haze. Sometimes it almost seems as if the sky is breathing, all the stars dancing gently as the world turns.  And then you'll get to know the incredible silence of the desert, and the calm that comes with long days of riding the rhythmic waves of the dunes.
 

FACT FILE  

Both the Drâa and Dadès valleys still form the main axes of communication, and getting a bus or grand taxi between the towns (from Ouarzazate to Boulmane de Dadès for instance) rarely presents a problem. Some visitors may want to rent a car – but be aware that though the main roads are good, some of the pistes that lead off from the valleys can be difficult without four wheel drive.

You can hire a car in Marrakech (or any of the other major cities) to drive down to Ouarzazate and the valleys. Or you can reach Ouarzazate by air, or by bus, and rent a car there to explore the area. Make sure you have a spare tyre, and adequate supplies of petrol. Unless you're an experienced off-road driver, it's best to stay on the main roads.

Health warning – bilharzia parasites live in the rivers in this area of Morocco. Don't swim or paddle in the water – and wear boots, not sandals, if you're going to get your feet wet. As long as you take these precautions, you don't have to worry.