Cascades D'Ouzoud

Sorry for the long time between posts, due to not being able to get wi-fi we have been unable to post, but we are back up and running now, so will have a couple of posts in quick succession.

After spending a couple of extra days in Marrakech to allow Carmen to recover from her cold, we set off on our way to the Ouzoud Falls (Cascades D'Ouzoud). Unfortunately, we didn't really get very far when we started as we got lost trying to get out of the medina, taking an hour to navigate out. Once clear of the medina, the cycling was nice, the roads were flat and not much traffic, although it did rain most of the way. However, the hassle of rain was rewarded by a beautiful double rainbow!

Double Rainbow! Does that mean two pots of gold?

 At 6pm, after covering about 70 km, we pulled over to find a place to wild camp. As this was our first experience of wild camping in Morocco, we were both a little nervous about it, as you might well expect. But we found a good spot, away from the road and in the shelter of some small trees. It took us about one and a half hours to set up due to it being very wet and starting to get quite dark. Once we were finally set up and the bikes chained to another tree we settled into our little tent for a cold meal of bread and fish. It was a cold night and neither of us slept very well, but it was a lot quieter than camping in a forest in Essex!

The second day of cycling started off nice and early at 8am, but by about 11am things started to get a bit harder. There were a lot of hills on this particular route and overall we were climbing in altitude. We had to get from about 500m (the altitude of Marrakech) to about 1200m (the altitude where we were staying by the Ouzoud falls). This made for some rather miserable cycling, it felt like a constant battle whenever going uphill and progress was very slow, and every time we saw a marker telling us the distance to our destination it seemed to only be creeping down. At one point we really didn't think we would make our destination by nightfall, but we kept going and were rewarded with a lovely downhill section for about 10km that took us all the way to our campsite where we secured a room.

The view on the way down

Our first day at the Cascades started with a nice long walk to the top of a nearby mountain through the local berber village of Ouzoud. It is a very small community with only a few local shops. Once reaching the top of the mountain via some donkey tracks and some climbing, we had a beautiful view over the whole surrounding landscape, seeing all the mountains around us. Unfortunately, we didn't bring lunch with us so our stay at the top was not too long as we were rather hungry. So we headed back through the village to buy some lunch.

After lunch, we headed for the main highlight of the village, the Cascades D'Ouzoud. The Cascades are a 100 metre tall waterfall within a valley that offers some amazing opportunities for photos with it's almost all day long rainbow shining through the spray. We were lucky enough to encounter some barbary apes whilst at the falls as well, which apparently is a common site due to regular feeding by tourists (although forbidden).

The beautiful Cascades D'Ouzoud

Our friend the barbary ape

Our last day at the falls saw us go on a different route suggested by a really friendly guy at the same campsite as us. We followed his advice on went on this route that tourists don't normally take and were rewarded with some amazing views of the falls from above and an abandoned village a bit further along, which we explored. To finish off our day, we headed back into Ouzoud to pick up some supplies for the road again. Whilst I was off on my own at the local boulangerie (bakery), the teenager in charge invited me inside to watch how they cooked the bread, putting the nice dough inside a big hot concrete oven with a charcoal fire using a big paddle. After then giving me the now hot bread from the oven he invited me across the road to watch Barcelona play Valencia (football). I stayed for a few minutes before politely excusing myself as Carmen was waiting for me.

Overlooking the falls from above

Sitting on the edge

 We then spent the rest of the evening in the communal lounge area of the campsite enjoying a really nice Moroccan mint tea and using the wifi to plan our next move. Soon after having the tea we were both very sleepy and ready for bed before the long ride westwards.

We will keep you posted as we go. Our next report should be in the seaside city of Essaouria. See you there!