Whilst we were still staying in Khouribga, Ayub volunteered to take take us to see the cascades at Ouzoud in the foothills of the Atlas mountains. I think these have the longest drop of any waterfall in Morocco. This needed an overnight stay, so we set off reasonably early one Friday and arrived in Ouzoud just in time for everyone (except me and Assia) to attend Friday Prayers.

This is Ouzoud High Street! It did not look very promising on arrival – pretty much a one donkey village. The route had twisted and turned its way up to 550 m (1800 ft) from the plains below. In normal times, this is a day trip for tourists from Marrakesh, though as there was no coach park, I suspect they arrive by minibus, which is all the roads can really cope with.

Due to Covid, I was virtually the only foreigner. There were a few other Moroccan tourists about, but their holiday season is only July and August, and this was May, so all the local traders were desperate for our custom.

On emerging from the Mosque, Ayub asked around to find accommodation. In minutes we had taken an apartment at the exceedingly low price of about £24 for 5 of us for a night. This price reflected the quality, so Assia refused even to consider cooking in the kitchen and the other facilities were not great. Not a problem as there were cafés eager to serve us and the beds were comfortable.

We visited this cafe for both supper and breakfast, but they were all similar.

After dinner, we set off to see the cascades. The village is level with the top of the falls, so we had to walk down 110 ft (330 m) of mostly steep steps to reach the bottom.

This is the view from a small viewing area about half way down

Most of the way there were small cafes, and many, many shoplets and stalls selling tourist stuff of all descriptions. Every item must either be carried down by humans or by donkey as there is no other way to reach them.

Eventually we reached the bottom, where there were about a dozen highly decorated flat bottomed boats waiting for passengers. Only 3 or 4 were actually in use as there were so few tourists. We hired an entire boat to ourselves for about £10.

One very happy oarsman to have only 5 passengers in his boat.

He rowed us to the foot of the falls, where we were under the spray and could see rainbows.

Then we slowly returned to the quay. I shudder to think what happens when there are 10 boats in use at the same time, as there is not much space, and there were boys leaping off the rocks and swimming, all in the same pool.

After tea at a cafe near the quay, we set off back up the steps. By this time two men had brought a couple of monkeys and were offering (for a fee) to let them sit on your shoulder, an offer we all declined.

A worthwhile visit, but only suitable for the reasonably fit as the steps were steep in places.

The following morning we strolled to the top of the gorge for a final view.

The actual waterfall is out of sight to the bottom left

Then we set off to the Bin el Ouidane dam and reservoir. This was built in the early 1950s for hydro electric power and irrigation, and all Moroccans learn about it at school.

After another windy route through the hills, on fairly minimal roads we reached a viewpoint.

This shows only a small fraction of the entire reservoir, and the water level was very low.

From there we could see a beach with boats, so we drove there and found we could go for a boat tour to the dam.

Assia, Semira and Jamel walking down to the boats.

I think this part is normally under water. The reservoir continues way round the corner in the distance.

This boatman considered himself very lucky to have captured the only tourists that day.

The weather was very Scottish, with gentle drizzle, much to the surprise of my city dwelling Moroccans, but we were well into the mountains, and they make their own weather everywhere.

This was as near as we got to the actual dam.

After that we set off back to Khourigba. It took a long time before we could see the plains again.

The town of Afourar and the geometric lines of the irrigated fields.

Afourar was quite a sizeable town, but we failed to find anywhere to eat dinner, and eventually ended up on the edge of Beni Mellal in the equivalent of a motorway services. We were definitely not returning by any usual tourist route.

After this we returned to Rabat for a while. After a couple of weeks, wanderlust struck the family again and we made a 9 day trip in the north to the Algerian border. This will be the subject of my next post.