Road Trip Day 3: Ameln Valley

How is it even possible to describe a place like the Ameln Valley? The answer; you can’t. There is no word worthy enough to describe this overwhelmingly beautiful landscape, with it’s fertile valleys and the rough mountains shining in gold in the sunlight. One of the formations on top of a mountain resembles a lion, and the local legend says that it’s there to wattch over the women while their men are away for business. Another man said that the lion had another purpose, which he wasn’t sure exactily what it was. But he was sure that there was something about it and that there were no coincidence that tourists and other people were drawn to the magic of this place.

We walked the valley for some time, admiring the ancient villages on the mountainside which there was no road access to. Amongst palms and almondtrees we lingered and soaked up the atmosphere that surely as the earth is spinning, was curing my soul from any bad thoughts. How wonderful it was! Ameln Valley… I had read about it, seen pictures of it, heard about it, but there’s no way on earth that I would expect the beauty of this place. It was simply magnificent, so despite the bitter cold that were freezing my marrow and bones that night, I slept like a baby, just to wake up to the day when it was time to leave Tafraout.

Road Trip Day 1: From Agadir to Tafraout

So we decided to go for a belated Christmas holiday. With a grande taxi we went from Agadir to Tiznit, which wasn’t a very interesting drive with plain fields on either side with the shadows of the mountains to your far left. I recognized Tiznit by it’s great wall of the medina. At the time I was eager to get to Tafraout, but otherwise I wouldn’t have hesitated in lingering around the medina for a while before moving forwards. But it was getting late and the taxis were running more and more infrequently, so at last we cought a taxi that would take us to our destination; the village of Tafraout in the Ameln Valley. The landscape started to change from the wide dry plains, to lusher hilly areas and finally a sensation of confusion creeps on you as the landscape is a mix of green hills, tiny forrests, dark frightening mountains looming in the distance and more inviting and softer ones on the other side welcoming you. One minute everything is beige and dusty and the next you’re surrounded by fertility, as if it were the cradle of all life.

The road took us further into the impressive wall-liked hills that made me expect a clan of native Americans with feathers and bows suspicially and readily looking down on you. But of course there wasn’t. This is Morocco, and it’s 2010.

Then the serious ride started – and oh my god what a ride. The narrow and very windy road took us through curves and bends not made for a vehicle to drive. But there we were and darkness crept upon us. I was amazed to see the little lights from houses scattered along the mountain sides, far from just about anything. The further inland we got, the higher it got and the more magnifiscent the scenery became. Then my ears started to pop. To anyone planning to travel this road; prepare for a roller coaster drive without rails. Just as I thought that ”this is it, now I’m going to die”, the road straightened out a bit, like an answer to a prayer. The side effect: the driver speeds up and I was once again friends with Sir Death.

After about three hours we finally arrived in the safe haven of Tafraout, which was all that I expected except for the bitter cold that I wasn’t prepared for at all. We checked in to a ”hotel” (more like a battered hoste, but it was cheap and clean enough), went for dinner and got to bed pretty early. It was absolutely freezing in the room, but thanks to a long day we both fell asleep and woke up even colder in the morning.