The spectacle that is the Dades Gorge
Dades Gorge – is spectacular. The drama unfolds the moment we head north from the large town of Boumalne-Dades, east of Ouarzazate. At the southern end of the valley are the stunning ochre, rust iron rich soils. The houses rendered in the same colour emerge from the soil. Only their square shapes ensuring they are recognised architecturally.
Rock formations at Tamellalt
The road winds up the western flank of the valley. Each turn as spectacular as the one before. The houses are now few and far between. Where they exist, they hug the road, rising above it. A few kilometres in at Tamellalt, gigantic finger-shaped rock formations emerge as we twist around a corner. These rocky shapes have formed as a result of freeze-thaw action – water, trapped below the thin layers of mud and rock, freezes at night and melts by day – thus splitting off layers of rock which disintegrate and leave a curved fresh surface. It is a sight to behold and needs to be viewed. Images simply do not do this landscape justice.
Below in the valley is farmland growing mostly potatoes and vegetables. Donkeys linger idly, waiting to be commandeered. Woman walk past with heavy loads of sticks which they have collected from the fields. Men hang around talking and drinking tea.
Dades Castle – is it really necessary?
From here, the valley grew narrow. By the time we reached our accommodation at Dar blues at Ait Oudinar, 25kms from Boumalne Dades, the valley had grown even narrower. Here, the road fords the river at the base of the narrowing gorge. The road now climbs up the eastern slope of the valley. A few metres into the climb we come across the ‘Dades castle’. This is not an authentic castle, but one built to add interest to the drive, as if it were needed.
The views from Hotel Timzzilite
In December, the valley gets very cold. The narrow, deep gorge only catches the sun for a few hours each day. The strong shadows it casts adds to the mystery of the valley. We continue to climb up the road, now climbing steeply, zigzagging up the hillside until we reached the hotel Timzzilite, still being built. With terraces and bedrooms on several floors it will, once finished, be a fabulous place.
The views north from the hotel is of the gorge, narrowing to little more than a slit in the rock. The view south is of the steeply rising road full of hairpin bends, the spectacular river, stunning geology and in the distance the ‘castle’. The restaurant on the top floor next to the car park is worth stopping to have a rather expensive cup of tea at 3 euros. “No sun, no radio!”, we are told as we inspect the simple solar panels on the roof! We couldn’t decide if the music blaring out across the valley, made the solar panels a good investment!! However, this is a good pit stop and is where almost all the tours stop.
Further up from here the road winds through the narrowest part of the gorge, no more than 10m across. Here the river has been forced to one side to make way for the road. An overhang over the road adds to the drama of traversing such a narrow space. Most cars preferring to drive closer to the river which fortunately now has a wall built next to it, to prevent people from driving into it.
Beyond the narrow gorge
Once through the gorge the valley opens up into the most stunning Shangri-la. This is a place where time has stood still since medieval times.
The wide valley floor is given over to farming, the abundance showing in the rich soils. Every corner of the valley floor is being farmed, although in December there wasn’t much growing. Here they grow mostly potatoes and vegetables, but also high-grade apples for which this area is renowned. A young man passes us on a donkey, a woman walking behind. A cute youngster, no more than 5-6 years old runs up to us smiling. “Dirham, dirham, stilo, stilo!” she says shyly. The expectations are bothersome. We offer a succulent-date in return, which is accepted. Calm reigns once more.
At the end of the valley the road once again climbs steeply. As we cross into the next valley the views are perhaps the most spectacular of all. Not unlike parts of Tibet, the distant views are of stunning mountains and mind-bending geology. The undulating and contorted layers of multi-coloured folded rock seemed to defy the very laws of physics. The result of the tensions and pressures of plate tectonics lay all around, and left us spell-bound.
M’Semrir town
Once through this high pass, the valley opens up again as we passed small towns until we reached M’Semrir. This was one of the larger towns up the gorge with restaurants, post office shops and even accommodation. Aqueducts had been built to transport water to the fields – narrow, spider-like, slightly ugly, concrete constructions – threading and zig-zagging their way across the valley floors.
We drove onto Tilmi further up the valley, the small town appearing on our map and in reality. On Google maps, Tilmi was further north from Agoudal? The road by now was disintegrating badly and river crossings precarious. Tilmi is ringed by the snow-sprinkled mountains of the High Atlas.
By now ‘Maps.me’ had taken us passed the junction where we had hoped to cross into the Todra Gorge. We hadn’t seen any road suitable for a 2WD, and on stopping a young lad he confirmed our suspicions that the road would not be suitable for our vehicle. Finally, we returned the same way back to Dar Blues.
Nangle facts & tips
The plan had been to drive through the gorge and cross over in the Todra gorge as shown on the map, a 200km round trip. R705 up from Boumalne Dades to M’Semrir is mostly okay with a 2WD vehicle. However, crossing into the Todra Gorge on the road going east, just north of M’Semrir is only suitable for a 4WD vehicle.
Accommodation at the eco-lodge Dar Blues at Ait Oudinar, 25kms north from Boumalne Dades. Check out our blog on why Dar Blues is a special place for us.
There is no fuel available on this route apart from at Boumalne Dades.
Nangle angle
Hire a 4WD vehicle to explore the little travelled roads north of the Dades and Todra Gorges where time stands still and scenery simply stunning.
