Gonna go fall in the river…
Leave it to me…the eternal clutz…
My local friend Zakaria and I went to the mountains near Marrakech for a day hike a few days ago. We shared a cab with 2 Canadian girls and their guide. (That’s 5 people plus the driver for those who are counting…)
A 45 minute cab ride brought us to our destination, with a nice little stop in a Berber village to have mint tea (Moroccan Whiskey) with a family. They of course make some money off this endevour, but nothing could beat the view, and the hospitality we were shown. Bread was put out, along with bowls of homemade butter, honey and olive oil. Simple, but utterly delicious! They made sure to invite our cab driver in as well.
(View from the Berber home -with an old Berber village in the distance)
We stayed only a little while, played with the kids and headed back to the cab for the final 20 minutes drive.
(A statue on the roof of the Berber home)
We soon reached our destination…barely a town to speak of, nestled beside a small river. There were some outdoor cafes that cattered to hikers and a few houses…but that was it.
Zak and I set off up the mountain…
The hike wasn’t exactly what I expected. There were more people and more rocks then I thought there would be. It seemed a bit like rock climbing at times…looking for toe holds, and so forth, to boost yourself up. It wasn’t actually too difficult, but sometimes I was a little worried about the size of the ledges and the fact that the rocks seemed to like to tumble down the hills.
We reached the first waterfall in about 15 minutes. People were splashing about, but we headed on. 15 minutes further we reached a vantage point where we could see 3 waterfalls cascading down the side of the mountain. On we went…
(View of the cascades)
This is actually where things got a bit difficult. The next 20 minutes of the hike were a bit rough for me…trailing behind the mountain goat that is Zakaria! The Canadian girls had similar problems, trailing their guide, exacerbated by the fact that they were wearing flipflops!
We finally reached the waterfall we were looking for, high up the mountain with an amazing view of the surrounding mountains and the ‘trail’ up.
(I don’t know about you…but I don’t see a trail)
And wouldn’t you know it….no more then 10 feet from where I was headed….well…I fell in the river! Of course I did! You know me…
(Where I took my tumble)
So I took a quick dip in the water…fell over backwards because I slipped on a wet boulder, Just tumbled right into the freezing cold water. But I’m okay…I managed to bruise my tailbone and smack my head a bit, but I’m good as new now. I lost my sunglasses, but did save my digital camera from any harm! So really…it worked out just fine….it was hot out anyway…
(On the road back to Marrakech)
Tags: Morocco
LizG