Tawrirt

It’s a long way to get to the Sahara desert from Essaouira so it was an early start leaving well before my hotel served breakfast, but I’d asked if they could help me out and as I left to join the others I was handed a small recyclable bag with breakfast to go. Appreciated.

We collected together near the port area and soon our minibus arrived, our bags were loaded and we began the journey which would take us most of the way across Morocco via the Atlas Mountains and an overnight stop. The views were varied as the landscape changed from dry and barren to the green foothills before the mountains and the views they bring. The photos in this footprint give you the general idea as we climbed higher and higher. To be honest, there were no steep climbs really and you didn’t realise how high you’d got until we checked the GPS (phones are amazing aren’t they) and noted we were at around 7200ft. We were also interested to learn the road we were travelling, Tizi n’Aguelmous traversed by Route National 9, is rated as one of the world’s most spectacular (ok, we got that) and dangerous roads (what!) in the world, requiring strong nerves (aaarrrgh!) to negotiate it. To be honest, at this time of year it’s fine because it’s the winter snows which make it treacherous but soon, when the extensive roadworks are finished, I suspect it’ll simply be reduced to a pleasant drive whatever the weather. Shame that ... give me dangerous, that’s what I say.

There were a few stops on the way which included a viewpoint overlooking the twisting road and yes, we had just come up there to where I took the photo. The last photo is where we had lunch.Read more