Climbing the High Atlas Mountains

For our final day in Marrakesh we hired a car and driver and headed off for the High Atlas Mountains. The Atlas rise to over 4000 metres and Morocco has ski fields adjacent to the Sahara. In winter you can see the snow capped mountains from Marrakesh

Only the highest peaks have snow in summer. We drove up the beautiful Ourika valley stopping to visit Berber houses and checking Berber jewellery. We also looked at Berber carpets but despite their efforts we did not buy any.

From the end of the road we started climbing. Over several hours we laboured in the heat until we reached the waterfall. It was one of the most difficult climbs we have made. Sir Edmund would have been proud of us. We made it up to the top after crossing VERY flimsy bridges without handrails and crossing the creek many times. We climbed up water worn slopes and a full on rock scramble. Getting down was just as difficult.

We had a cold drink on the drive up after crossing a suspension bridge and after our climb we had lunch after crossing another bridge to get to the restaurant.

By the time we got back to the hotel we had just enough energy to dive into the pool.

Back to Casablanca tomorrow.