Heading East

After leaving Marrakech we found a peaceful campsite amongst an orange grove about 30km from the city, La Terre des M’Loukhiyas. It was a beautiful and peaceful place that we mostly had to ourselves and was a welcome contrast to Le Relais in Marrakech, which is also a lovely campsite but so incredibly busy. The only downside to this campsite was that the route to get there from the main road was a bit circuitous and quite narrow in one section as it passes through a small village. Still it was perfectly doable in our 6m motorhome, although I wouldn’t recommend trying to find it after dark.

With a couple of days of relaxation under our belts we were ready to head out once again and made our way back to the main road where we planned to head up and across the Atlas mountains, over the Tizi N’Tichka pass, which has a good paved road.

Once over the pass we turned off the main road onto a spur road that passed through the town of Telouet before heading to Ait Benhaddou. The guidebook we were using was quite old and suggested avoiding this route due to the bad road but actually the road was fine and what’s more, it was a beautiful drive so well worth it.

We arrived in the town of Telouet, at one time the seat of power for the Glaoui family who were led by the infamous Pasha. It was an important route for caravans that came through the Sahara heading for Marrakech and the taxes imposed on these caravans by the Glaoui’s is what led to their wealth.

The Kasbah in Telouet was the family stronghold and was still lived in until 1957 when the Pasha died.

On arriving in Telouet we were greeted by a guide and as the only way to get into the Kasbah is with a guide we agreed a price for a tour and headed from the car park (a dirt lot) to the Kasbah itself.

The kasbah (a fortified castle) had been badly damaged in the 2023 earthquake, meaning that a lot of the older portions of the palace are no longer safe to visit, however there has been some restoration work carried out and there is a suite of ornate reception rooms on the upper floors that can be visited.

The guide was extremely knowledgeable and we came away feeling that we had learnt a lot and the lessons didn’t stop there, because at the end of the tour you return to the car park via a women’s collective of carpet makers. Of course the hope is that you buy a beautiful rug but there was no pressure or hard sell and we enjoyed learning all about how the different types of rugs were made before heading on our way.

We left Telouet and drove a short distance from the town before seeing a hand painted sign off the road down a track saying “Ancient Salt Mines”. We couldn’t resist having a look and after about 500m of very bumpy off-roading we arrived at the entrance to the mine.

We were greeted by one of the miners, who didn’t speak any English, but was happy to take us in for 20 dirham – roughly £1.60.

It’s still a working salt mine and there were lots of sacks of salt piled up by the entrance. Further in, we saw a bright blue lake encrusted with salt crystals while at the other end the mine stretched away into the darkness.

From the mine we carried on along the same road until we reached Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO world heritage site which is famous for having one of the most well know Ksars (fortified villages). This Ksar has been used in many films and TV productions such as Gladiator, Game of Thrones and Lawrence of Arabia.

The Ksar, a popular stop along the ancient caravan route, was originally built in the 11^th Century but due to the construction methods and the continual need for renewal, none of the current buildings actually pre-date the 17^th Century.

The site is accessed via a bridge from the new town, which is mostly dedicated to tourism, with plenty of restaurants, souvenir shops, hotels and a campsite.

We crossed the bridge and climbed up through the Ksar, making our way to the top and the Agadir (a fortified grain storage) before descending to a café halfway down for a welcome rest and cooling orange juice. Despite being early it was already pretty hot.

Leaving Ait Benhaddou, we drove the short distance to the city of Ouarzazate. We arrived just in time to find a spot in the very full and not very attractive municipal campsite before a sandstorm hit the area. We spent the evening hunkered down with the wind and dust swirling around us but were largely protected by the campsites walls.

Ouarzazate is the location of several film studios that international film companies use to take advantage of the cheap labour rates and the desert locations. Films such as Gladiator, Asterix, Jewel in the Nile, Cleopatra and The Way Back were filmed here.

As a result some of the sets used by these films are still standing both at Atlas Studios where we had a guided tour of the sets and at the Ouarzazate cinema museum.

The cinema museum was the better of the two I think and you can just wander round by yourself. There are no signs saying what anything is but I found the AI on my phone was pretty good at identifying the scenes !

It’s amazing how terrible and amateurish the sets look in person but how real they look on screen.

On Leaving Ouarzazate we had a run in with the Moroccan police, which unfortunately is not uncommon for motor-homers in Morocco. As we were leaving town we actually had a conversation about stop signs and how you had to stop or you would get fined. Which made it all the more ironic that leaving town we came across a roundabout with a stop sign on it. We duly stopped and then entered a roundabout where there was another stop sign where we had no choice but to stop as there was oncoming traffic.

As soon as we turned out of the roundabout a policeman leapt in front of us and pulled us over. He insisted that we hadn’t stopped at the stop sign and that he was going to give us a ticket. After arguing back and forwards for a bit we accepted that there wasn’t much we could do to avoid the ticket despite being absolutely sure we had stopped (we’ll buy a dashcam in the future I think). After trying all the tricks to reduce the fine, we had no choice but to begrudgingly pay the fine of €40, breaking our record of motor-homing in 47 countries and never having paid a ticket or bribe.

Putting that unfortunate business behind us, we continued on to our next destination, Dades Canyon, a couple of hours drive from Ouarzazate. 

As we climbed up into the canyon our first stop was at a viewpoint to see the Monkey’s Paw rock formations. They didn’t look much like monkey’s paws to us but there you go.

Just past here is the start of a hike to the Monkey Fingers slot canyon. After a couple of km’s walking through small villages you reach the start of the slot where it widens out and flows into a river. The slot canyon itself was dry when we visited and is really reminiscent of some of the canyons we saw in Utah.

Some parts of the canyon involve crawling and others climbing to get round obstacles and there are some very narrow parts. It’s a very cool hike and we bumped into quite a few people doing it – some who had taken a guide, although it isn’t necessary.

Throughout Morocco we noticed that there are lots of guides available to lead you to things which are really easy to find. The guides will tell you it’s impossible on your own but it’s usually pretty simple and they do leave you alone once you make it clear you are not interested.

After returning to the camper we carried on up the canyon which gets deeper and narrower. There is a very cool set of switchbacks up the side of the canyon at one stage, where there is a viewpoint and restaurant at the top.

Our turnaround point for the canyon was at the end of a really narrow section where the main canyon ends.  All our research had told us that the road became 4×4 only before looping around to the next canyon, Todgha Gorge. We later learnt that it had just been paved and we could have gone all the way round. This was a little frustrating but not the end of the world as we drove back down the canyon and ended up spending the night at a lovely little campsite off the main road where we were welcomed by a very friendly owner with some tea and very tasty cake.

Driving through Dades Gorge