Leaving the Desert Camp
We had a quick breakfast in the morning in the dining tent of Sahara Happy Camp. It was a fast breakfast and our host seemed to the “packing” up. Not sure why, it could be they were not having “guests” in the next few days. After breakfast, Yat Thong and I and our two new friends piled into Omar’s truck. Omar was sending us to Riad Manouche to pick up our cars.
The 20 minutes drive turned out to an exhiralating ride. Omar was speeding up and down the dunes, “roller coasting”, swinging wildly left and right, tilting and deeping. “Dune Bashing!” We were all holding tightly on the overhead grab handles to break and soften the continuous bumps. My new friend sitting in the center back row of the car had no where to hang on to!
It was nice that Omar “threw” in the “Dune Bashing” as a nice farewell surprise
Taking a slow drive to Marrakesh
From Merzouga we were doing a slow trip to Marrakesh. Many visitors would dash from Merzouga to Marrakesh in one day in a 8.5 hours drive. For Yat Thong and I we did have a time restrain so we made it a five days trip to go from Merzouga to Marrakesh.
When we planned our routes from Merzouga to Marrakesh there seemed to be so many attractions/towns/cities where we would like to stop and visit along to route. Eventually we picked out four main attractions, there were Todgha Gorges, Dades Gorges/valley, Skoura and Ait Benhaddou. We were not too sure the sort of duration we would need at each of these attractions, so to give ourselves ample time we decided to stay a night at each of these main attractions and not to worry about rushing off.
Each day included a short two hour to three hours drive, early check in to our stay for the day, rest, relax and recharge at the hotel and then a leisurely visit to the attractions.
On the way to Todgha Gorge
For first destination after Merzouga was Todgha Gorge also called Todra Gorge. The drive from Merzouga took about 3.5 hour. Along the route there was no attraction worthly to stop, so it was a monotonous but leisurely 215km drive.
We were moving east and away from the desert but the landscape remain very dry and sandy. There were no car but ours on the road.The roads were well maintained and the drive was smooth and easy. The landscape far ahead was this “multilayers mountains” one layer behind the others. The color of each layer lightened, fading to merge with the color of the distance sky.
At about 1.30pm, after three hours of driving we reached Tinghir (Tinerhir). Tinghir was the nearest city to Todra Gorge about 13km away. Instead of heading to the gorge we zoomed straight to our hotel “Riad Dar Bab Todra” in Tinghir to rest and freshen up.
Tinghir city was the capital of Tinghir Province and has a population of 42000. Driving into the city we saw a township of “red” buildings/mud houses. We found our “Riad” and quickly check-in. Riad Dar Bab Todra was beautiful. It had a “modern feel”, a “resorty ambience” a place to rest and relax and “do nothing”.
In the compound of Riad Dar Bab Todra was a lovely pool and a terrazzo. The pool felt so inviting but the sun was just too hot to take a dip. We sat in the balcony of our room and stared out to the nearby lushful “Palmerie” until about 5pm before we started our journey to Todra Gorge.
Todgha Gorges
Todgha Gorges were a series of limestone river canyons in the eastern part of the High Atlas Mountain. Two rivers Todgha River and Dades River carved out Todgha Gorges and Dades Gorges sited next to each others. At the Todgha Gorge viewpoint, the gorge was view from bottom up as for the Dades Gorge Viewpoint the gorge was view from top down.
We would love to drive northward from Todgha Gorge Viewpoint and crossed the mountain range over to Dades Gorge Viewpoint. Unfortunately from internet searches we found that the road was only passible to 4 Wheel drive vehicles which meant the northward bound road was not feasible to us and our 2 wheel drive sedan.
So Plan B was to visit Todgha Gorges, stayed a night in Tinghir then drive via a southern loop to Dades Gorge the next day.
We had read that the best time to visit Todgha Gorge was near sunset so we timed ourselves to arrive at Todgha Gorge Viewpoint at about 5.30pm. There was a small parking area just before the viewpoint and we were lucky to get a parking spot (no fee).
There were many visitors at the gorge, and everybody was walking on a road by a stream (Todgha River) into the Gorge. The walking stretch was just 600m long and this was the most spectacular part of the gorge where sheer and smooth rock walls rose 160 metres on each side.
April was a dry season, the canyon floor was dry with a small stream (Todgha River) of water flowing through. During the rainy season, Todgha River could expand massively covering the canyon floor in a strong torrent.
As the sun set, its rays hit the gorge at an angle and one side of the wall turned golden. The gorge was already beautiful by itself but the golden rays of the sun had greatly intensified its beauty. Coming at sunset time was indeed the right decision.
This viewpoint stretched about 600m which was not too long to walk, at the end we turned around to return to the start. Midway we saw several tables set near the edge of the stream, they were placed there by “tea store” on push carts on the road. All the tables were already occupied with visitors drinking tea/coffee. We stood around and finally found a vacanted table, quickly we went to sit down. Soon we too were sipping tea and coffee by the stream enjoying the gentle breeze!
Dinner at our hotel
Rather than going into Tinghir town to seek out a nice restaurant for dinner we went back to our hotel for the meal. Our hotel had a lovely inhouse restaurant and our dinner was very yummy. The cost of the dinner for two was 270MAD
Our stay for the Night
Our stay for the night was in Tinghir, it was Riad Dar Bab Todra. The main building of the hotel was a two storey, in the compound was a pool, a terrace and an inhouse restaurant in another building.
Our room was on the higher level overlooking the beautiful pool. Beyond the hotel was a beautiful green palmerie. The room came with a ensuite toilet. The cost of the room for two for one night with breakfast in the morning was Eur76.
Breakfast the next morning at the dining room of the hotel was simple. Bread, meat, egg, cucumber, tomato, cheese and beverages.
Other Accommodation in the Area