Traveling through Morocco: Gorges du Dades, Gorges du Todhra, Merzouga, Erg Chebbi

Ait Ben Haddou to Gorges du Dades
After enjoying the sunset at Ait Ben Haddou and a nice breakfast at our hotel we hit the road towards the Gorges du Dades.
The road leads mostly through desert sometimes interrupted by huge oasis along the Dades River. We stopped for the market in Skoura and in the ‘city of roses’ El-Kelaa M’Gouna. Honestly none of these little cities offered a lot to us. Although it sounds romantic when you read that El-Kelaa M’Gouna is the world capital of rose oil and rose water, it is not spectacular: an oasis with some Kasbahs nearby and a busy main street.
The landscape changes in Boulmane. Driving to the north from Boulmane leads through a beautiful green valley with several Ksars or Kasbahs, strange rock formations and then finally the very narrow canyon of the Dades River (‘Gorges du Dades’).

Scenes from the canyon of the Dades River (‘Gorges du Dades’)

Gorges du Dades to Merzouga
The first stop this day leads to the Gorges du Todhra, the canyon of the Todhra river starts just a few kilometers north of the city of Tinehir with its wide oasis. We drove the Todhra valley further north, to the impressive, most narrow part of the canyon where it is quite crowded due to bus tours. Further north the landscape is nice although not so spectacular: a clear river with fresh water winds through the mountains.
After a picnic at the river we drove back to Tinehir and then through the desert towards Tinejdad. Tinejdad is a dusty desert village, but it offers two jewels: One is the beautiful garden and museum with all kind of collectibles of Said Ouadou in the center of Tinjdad on the main street. The other is also prepared by Said, some kilometers west of Tinejdad, he restored a group of mineral water springs in the middle of the desert. The area around the springs is decorated with typical goods and tools from the nomads and farm people of the region.
Further eastwards towards Erfoud the desert changes, it becomes sandier and some kilometers before Erfoud the first small dunes appear.

Merzouga – Erg Chebbi
We staid two nights in Merzouga and the Erg Chebbi region. Our hotel (Hotel Kasbah Mohayut.) offered us a nice room in the hotel for one night and arranged the tour to the desert with dromedaries (some call it just camels, although there is a difference) and the night in a tent as well.
If you don’t want to explore the dunes during the hot day, but you want to do more than just hanging around on the pool I can recommend the Dayet Sri, a big seasonal lake and the ‘Depot des Nomads’ if you are into shopping of traditional goods from a scarf through lamps to carpets.
In the late afternoon when the temperature was more moderate – even in April it was far beyond 30°C during the day – our tour with the camels started. We were a group of about 10 tourists and two guides; it took us about one and a half hour to get to the tents in the middle of the dunes. Arrived at the dunes we watched the sunset, had a simple but nice diner, enjoyed the stars in the sky and talked at the campfire. The tents were equipped with real, proper and quite comfortable beds. After the impressive sunrise we went back to the hotel were the breakfast was served and we could take a shower.
It was quite impressive to ride through the dunes and I would recommend to everybody to do such an excursion.

Ride on the dromedaries

Colorful dunes in the Erg Chebbi

Next: N'kob, Val du Draa, Kasbah Tamnougalte, Marrakech
Or see the Morocco slide show for more pictures.

Traveling through Morocco: Marrakech and Ait Ben Haddou

This April, we traveled 12 days through Morocco. We started in Casablanca, took then the train to Marrakech where we stayed two nights. From Marrakech we did a loop with a rental car over the Atlas Mountains and through the Moroccan part of the Sahara with the following stations:

• Ait Ben Haddou
• Val du Dades
• Gorge du Todrah
• Merzouga and Erg Chebbi
• N’kob
• Val du Draa

And then back to Marrakech were we spent another night, finally we went back to Casablanca from where we took the plane back to Stuttgart.

Photographing in Morocco
Before starting the description of our travel through Morocco a few words on photographing in Morocco. Morocco is an Islamic country. Although not explicit written in the Koran, since centuries the religion has a tradition to not show human beings and animals in paintings or photographs (as a modern version). This is known as Aniconism in the Islam. One of the results of this tradition leads to the fantastic ornamental work in the architecture of Morocco and Andalusia (southern Spain) which can be found especially in palaces. Although you have TV and Billboards in the Morocco of the 21st century some people still feel uncomfortable being captures on photography. Therefore you have to be careful taking pictures of people – it might happen that you try to take a picture of a crowded place in a medina and people will raise their hands to cover their face. On the other side people offer to be on a photograph and expect then a tip. And it might happen that people entertain some doubt if they should be portrayed to get a tip or not to be compliant with their belief.

Marrakech
We stayed in the Riad ‘Les Trois Mages’ which is in the northern part of the Medina, later in the trip we stayed also in the southern part - I preferred definitely to stay in the northern part, although it is a little bit farer to walk to the famous ‘Djema el Fna’. But you enter the souk from the less touristy side where it seems to be more authentic and the merchants are less ‘pushy’ in trying to sell you whatever they offer.
Things to do in one and a half days in Marrakech’s northern part of the medina:
Visit of the souk and ‘Djema el Fna’
Visit of the ‘Jardin Majorelle’, a nice tropical garden, although it’s crowdie with a lots of tourists.
Visit of the Medersa Ben Yousef (former Koran school)

Dyed wool

The souk of Marrakech

Djema el Fna, with an fantastic mood right after sunset

Medersa Ben Yousef, the former Koran school

Marrakech to Ait Ben Haddou
Originally I planed to have a 4x4 car, but since we were at peak season in Marrakech it was impossible to get one – at least I was to late organizing it. So we had a regular car, a mini-van with a little bit more clearance which worked well for our trip to the south and into the Sahara desert. Major streets in Morocco are usually quite good. Sometimes you might have to drive a short distance over some gravel roads to reach your final destination.
In springtime you drive from Marrakech to the Atlas Mountains through a very green and flowering landscape. Probably not what you expect thinking about Morocco. Coming to the foot of the mountains the meadows are more and more replaced by forest. Getting higher and coming closer to the Tizi-n-Tichka pass the landscape gets alpine with less and less vegetation. All along the street you see booths with minerals and fossils. The minerals are colorized in the fanciest colors! I never understood why they colorize them so unnaturally. On the southern side of the Atlas Mountains the landscape changes, rocky and colorful mountains stand in contrast to green valleys.
After five hours on the main road we arrived in Ait Ben Haddou. This Kasbah completely build by traditional rammed earth is a UNESCO world heritage and a very popular stop for tourists in this area. It might be crowded during the day. We visited it in the late afternoon after 4pm and it was not to busy. If the river carries some water locals with some donkeys offer to bring you to the other side. You have to negotiate a price. Some of the houses in Ait Ben Haddou are still in use and you might be able to visit a traditional home, when visiting a tip is expected.

Ait Ben Haddou, UNESCO World Heritage, completly build from rammed earth

Ait Ben Haddou

Next: Gorges du Dades, Gorges du Todhra, Merzouga, Erg Chebbi
Or see the Morocco slide show for more pictures.

Hiking Cinque Terre

During our vacation at the beginning of September we spent a few days in Monterosso al Mare one of the five villages building Cinque Terre in Italian region of Liguria. The five picturesque villages became a UNESCO World Culture Heritage in 1997. The villages are more or less glued to the rocks like a eagles aerie surrounded by very step terraces were vineyards and olive trees are grown. There are several possibilities to visit the villages; for sure the car is the worst of them. To get from one village to another by car you have to take steep and winding roads. The road from La Spezzia to Levanto from where the access roads to the villages leave runs about 400-600 meters above the see.
Better ways to visit the villages are the train which is connecting all of them at least once per hour (one way ticket about € 1,50), the boat (watch for the sea condition, it is not running during high surf!) or hiking – all the villages are connected by a trail along the sea. For the hiking trail a admission fee has to be paid at one of the little booths, it’s about € 6 per day.

If you hike during the morning and noon you probably want to walk from east to west, the sun in the back gives a nicer light on the landscape. For the afternoon I recommend to hike from east towards west again with the sun in your back.

Riomaggiore

We stayed in Montorosso (the most north-westerly village) in a private apartment. We started our first hike on a late morning in Riomaggiore (the most south-easterly village) where we got to in about 15 minutes by train from Monterosso. The trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the Via Dell'Amore ("Lovers Walk") and has an easy access at the train station, it is mostly concrete, totally flat and easily to walk for everybody even with a baby buggy. You need probably some 30 minutes to reach Manarola.

Entrance to the "Via Dell'Amore" in Riomaggiore

From Manarola to Corniglia the trail has some steps in, but it is pretty wide and there are no steep passages, this makes it another easy hike. After some 60 minutes you reach the train station of Corniglia. Walk along the train station and follow the signs to Corniglia. You will reach via a long stair where you have to climb close to 400 steps to get to Corniglia.

Stair to Corniglia

Knowing that the next leg to will take longer and will be steeper, we stopped hiking in Corniglia and took the train back to Monterosso.

Mystic situation at train station in Corniglia

On another day we started quite late at around 5:30pm from Monterosso towards Vernazza. This trail is totally different; it is narrow and steep, sometimes just wide enough for one person.

The small and steep trail from Monterosso to Vernazza

The trail leads to an elevation to more than 200 meters above the sea and is offering a great view back towards the bay of Monterosso. This part of the trail is by far less crowded as the convenient ones described earlier. You pass vineyards, olive trees and fruit gardens.

Olive trees give some shade for the hikers

Olive trees with nets for the harvest. The nets are spread on the ground when the olive fruits are ripe.

Take your time and enjoy the little details of nature: flowers, insects, spiders and lizards.

After a little more than one hour the village of Vernazza is appearing below on the coast. The whole trail from Monterosso to Vernazza takes about 1.5 hours.

Vernazza

We spent the evening in Vernazza in one of the restaurants, so we had a chance to enjoy the wonderful atmosphere of this village; with the boats in the main street and the little harbour.
The last train after midnight brought us back in a few minutes to Monterosso.

Boats in the main street of Vernazza

Harbor of Vernazza by night

Hiking along the Aletsch Glacier

Aletsch Glacier

The Aletsch Glacier is the biggest glacier in central Europe. It builds together with the world famous summits of the Bernese Alps (Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau) and the Bietschhorn the Unesco World Heritage Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.

We stayed in Fiesch, a touristic center popular for skiing in the upper Rhône valley. This part of the Rhône valley is also known as “Goms”.

Our first hike leads us from the top station of the Eggishorn aerial tramway to the summit of the Eggishorn (2934 m). From there we went down to the Märjelen-Lake and the border of the Glacier. We returned to the middle station of the Eggishorn cable car. If you take your time to enjoy the great views, the fauna and flora and if you spent some time taking pictures you might take 4-5 hours for the hike. The signs in the area show shorter walking times!

Trail to the summit of the Eggishorn

From the top of the Eggishorn you have a fantastic view on the Aletsch Glacier and you see on the horizon most of the summits with more than 4000 m of the alps, including: Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau, Aletschhorn, Finsteraarhorn, Monte Rosa, Dom, Matterhorn, Weisshorn and Mont Blanc.

Aletsch panorama view (click to enlarge)

Details of the glacier surface

The way down to the Märjelen-Lake is accompanied by great alpine nature.



The Märjelen-Lake was formed in the 18th and 19th century when melting water was retained by the Aletsch glacier.

The edge of the glacier is quite impressive. Parts break down during the summer month.

Note the persons in the center right part of the pictures

On the way back to the middle station of the cable car you have a nice view towards the Fiesch Glacier, the second biggest glacier of the Alps.

Fiesch Glacier

The second hike on the other day started on the mountain station of the aerial tramway from Mörel to Riederalp, we spent most of the time in the area of the Aletschwald and returned to Riederalp.

The Aletschwald (Aletsch forest) stretches on the northern slope of the Hohfluh and Moosfluh mountains between 1600 m to 2200 m. Which are a part of the same range as the Egishorn and Bettmerhorn.


The forest includes some of the oldest trees of Switzerland, old larch trees and Swiss stone pines. The trails offer great views down to the lower part of the Aletsch Glacier whose glacier tongue is as low as 1700 m.

Summer vacation Switzerland and Italy

Recently we spent around ten days on a trip through Switzerland and northern Italy. Our stations were the upper Rhône valley, called Goms in the Swiss canton of Wallis, where we visited the Aletsch glacier. Then we drove south to Cinque Terre on the Italian cost of Liguria and finally we visited Treiso, a little wine village in the Langhe region of southern Piedmont.