Day Totals: 13 hrs, 1.0 kms



Three years ago, I wandered off the map up the eastern slopes of the Atlas mountains and came across one of my coolest discoveries in all the time I've been in Morocco: The Amzrit Shangri la… a fertile valley with plentiful water surrounded by high mountains, all but disconnected from the outside world . It was a perfect adventure all except for one thing: I left spaces between the segments of my hike. Back then I hadn’t yet grasped the significance of an "uninterrupted trail of footprints" and alternated between walking and clambering aboard the clunky vans that that haul folks back and forth to the weekly market.

Now looking at the map, I know this could easily be a Superhike if I could just patch those hike segments together. This would be a cool addition to my collection of Superhikes. Unlike the other Superhikes which are in areas well known to tour guides, this one was my own discovery, completely off the beaten track. In fact, it doesn’t even exist on my paper map. So even though it isn’t a “Great Civilization” like the Draa Valley or the Imperial Cities, it is it’s own unique world.

The question now is: can I do it in 3 days? Transportation is very unreliable in those parts, and one of the “spaces” between hike segments is way up in the mountains… well, it’s now or never .

And so, early in the morning I get up and head to Marrakech bus station to catch a bus over the mountains to Ouarzazate… the a collective taxi to Skoura… the some another collective taxi to Toundoute… and see what I can scare up there to get me up towards Tamzrit…. Sounds complicated, but I’m going to give it a try.

The Crazy Man on the Bus

 

What would normally be an idyllic ride over the High Atlas pass becomes a white knuckle house of horrors ride—except this is no amusement park. There’s a drunk fellow on the bus who insults the ticket guy, so the ticket guy and a couple others drag him off the bus and rough him up a little bit. No problem. The guy was asking for it. But then, they let him back on the bus and he continues yelling and screaming.


Then, just as we start zigzagging the treacherous switchbacks of Tichka, with a sheer drop on one side, he makes a mad dash for the front . He’s taken back to his seat. A helpful fellow passenger sits next to him trying to calm him down. A few minute later he rushes to the front again. He’s accompanied back to his seat. And then again—getting within inches of the driver.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing. There are some very clear and simple solutions to this: One, throw the guy off the bus… Two, stop the bus and call the cops… three, tie the guy up or have some passengers volunteer to sit on him. But no, people just try to reason with him, which clearly isn’t working. I remember, years ago, while taking a Greyhound bus in California, the driver threw a passenger off the bus in the middle of the desert—for smoking! Now a guy is putting us all at risk of death, and people are just talking to him!

I have half a mind to tell them that if they don’t do something about this guy, I’m just going to get off the bus… but finally we reach a Gendarme police post, and and the guy gets off yelling and screaming, demanding justice, but of course, nobody’s going to testify in his defense . Finally everything gets sorted out, the guys stays, and we drive off, much to my relief.

We get to Ouarzazate late, but I decide to continue on as plan… continue on to Skoura where I find a van that’s not only going to Toundoute—he’s headed all the way to Amzrit, my Shangri la Valley discovery. I’m half tempted to just go all the way and re-experience that place, but I decide to stick to the plan. After an other delay we finally head off.

In Toundoute, we stop where they load up the rickety van with… gas tanks.

Dang. This is starting to feel like a series of scenes from a Final Destination movie…

Finally we are off. Up the stretch of paved road, and then unto to the rocky dirt road winding along the side of the mountain… all along the stretch that I hiked back in ’10 in the gorge far below. Finally we pass Tamzrit where I’m supposed to get off . But I want to go up the mountain a bit further to the spot where I got picked up by a van after crossing the mountain pass coming from Amzrit. This way I can continue my “trail of footprints” and connect my Amzrit hike and my Imin Oulou-Tamzrit hike.

I don’t know what they’re thinking when I ask to be let off in the middle of nowhere… “Continue on with us to Amzrit—you can stay the night there and come back to tomorrow”. But I insist and they let me off, and as the sun sets, my hike finally begins.

Back in Tamzrit Mountains

 

It’s a weird feeling being back here after 3 years. It feels different. Back then, the mountains were bare, but down in the valley were patches of lush greenery. Now it’s winter, all is brown, except for small patches of snow not to far above me, which is a reminder that I don’t have a sure place to stay the night and I’m not equipped for the cold. There’s the gite down in Imin Oulou, but that’s a long ways away—and I don’t even know if Brahim is there or not.

But first things first: let’s connect the hikes. Up ahead is the little cluster of three houses, all by themselves on the rocky slopes, a sight which inspired and baffled me on my last trip. Now I just need to walk a few kilometres back to Tamzrit to the spot where I first tried to hike to Amzrit, but gave up and turned around. As I walk, I soak in the rugged solitude of this moment and try to recapture a little bit that feeling I had on this unforgettable hike back in the summer of ’10.

Then, just as I’m approaching my “connecting” point, I see a van coming up behind me… I hurry up… I make the “footsteps connection” just in time so I can hop on the van and catch a ride back down the mountain. Looks like this might be my lucky day after all.

Unfortunately the van is going only as far as Tamzrit… which feels as unwelcoming as it did back in ’10, so I head down the road, figuring that I’m going to have to hoof it back to Imin Oulou. But in a few moments I hear footsteps behind me. It’s another fellow who was on the van—and he’s heading to Imin Oulou too! Suddenly the long hike in the darkness doesn’t seem quite so daunting.

We get to talking. The fellow is a school teacher in a village just beyond Imin Oulou. But unlike other teachers who have been assigned to this region who consider working here equivalent to life in hell, he actually likes it. Why? Well, he’s from these parts originally, so he needed no adjustment to the quiet basic life of the mountains.

“Those city folks don’t have any idea about living on their own. I’ve seen some of them bring their mothers out here to wash their clothes for them! But life here is actually quite nice—much better than it used to be. I’ve got a satellite dish… I can watch all the football games… At the weekly market we can buy anything we need. This is a clean, good life.” This fellow has a wife (who is also from the region) and a car but he doesn’t like to drive it this far up the mountain due to the rough road. I guess whether living in these parts is heaven or hell all depends on your perspective.

He goes on giving me some insights into the region. He has some rather unflattering words about my “Shangri La” Amzrit. “Sure there’s plenty of water and good farmland there—but the people are very complacent. They still haul buckets of water from the stream and don’t even have toilets—even though it would be very simple to hook up a couple hoses and they could have running water. They have the means, but they don’t think of making even some basic changes”

He goes on. “Things have changed a lot since I was a kid. Back then, if you were to come to a village, all the women would hide. Now people know about the world outside this valley, thanks to TV. Also, TV has really improved family relationships”

“How’s that?” I ask, surprised.

“Well, before people didn’t have much to do in their free time, so husbands and wives were always fighting and nagging. Now they’ve got TV to keep them busy and they get along better.”  Well that’s a first… watching TV can improve your marriage relationship?



It’s an interesting conversation, giving some new insights into this region. Finally, as we approach Imin Oulouan, the fellow calls up a friend on his cell phone who comes to pick us up and take us the rest of the way.