5 hrs, 3.0 kms



Less than three weeks later I'm back on the road again, on my 7^th trip in 3 months . There’s no question where I’m going this time: right back to Tafraoute. This time I’ve got three days so there’s no question that I’ll be able to make this into my 11^th Moroccan Superhike. This time the bus takes the more direct route from Agadir through Ait Baha.

Early in the morning the bus starts to climb high up the slopes above a valley that plunges thousands of meters below. Way down below there are a whole row of little villages beckoning me. The cliffs are magnificent as well—and there a couple villages even the ruins of a little castle perched on its rim.

I’ve got a battle going on in my mind. Part of me wants to get off the bus and continue on on foot—this kind of scenery can only really be appreciated on foot, giving you plenty of time to really sink it in. But another part of me wants to stick to the plan, keep going until I’m within a day’s walk of Tafraoute, and then get off. Besides, if I were to hike this stretch, I would probably want to follow the road at the bottom of the valley, where most of the villages are .

Finally we reach a wide flat valley. Right in the middle of it is a butte, rising up from the valley floor, with a postcard perfect castle village perched at the top. I whip out my camera for a picture—even though I know it’s a pathetic way to experience such a cool discovery… speeding past it in a bus. So when the bus stops at a sizeable town down the road, I just can’t take it any more. I grab my stuff and get off. I have no idea how far it is yet to Tafraoute… but there’s no way I’m going to not continue this stretch on foot.

"I thought you were going to Tafraoute!" the ticket guy calls out to me.

“No, I’m getting off here” I respond offering no further explanation.

Exploring my first town.

 

Idougidnif is small, but nicely fixed up with a little plaza and a row of shops . So the first order of the day is to get myself a hearty breakfast—as who knows when willl be the next time I’m have the chance to have a good meal. I go for my favorite dish here in the south: egg and tomato omelette. I’m worried that the guy might overcharge me, as this is a slightly touristy area, but he refuses to give me the price—telling me his prices are reasonable. Afterwards, I’m a little embarrassed when he charges me only 50 euro cents… I feel a bit undercharged this time.

What I don’t do is stock up on food for the road. Figuring there will be shops where I can buy snacks on the way. I kind of like the feeling of finding my food on the road—perhaps a leftover hunter-gatherer instinct… But this time it’s going to turn out to be a bad decision.

After my breakfast, I backtrack just a little ways to see the village a bit more. I consider walking all the way back to that castle on the butte, but decide I really need to start moving south, as I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get to Tafraoute . So I head down there road, past a scattering of houses, and small orchards.

But up ahead, it looks like there’s a long flat stretch without much to see. I wonder if maybe I made a bad decision getting off the bus—just to spend the next day or two trudging across boring flatland. That would suck—especially after passing up so much fascinating terrain of north.

There is something that looks interesting: a side road heading up to a jagged gorge in the mountains, with a sign saying there’s a village up there. I’m intrigued by this mystery—a town tucked away up among those cliffs somewhere.  Probably a dead end… I’ll spend an hour or so to get up there, then an hour backtracking back… but I just can’t resist. This is a day of adventure and unexpected discovery, isn’t it? I cut across the fields and up the steep rocky hillside, figuring this will either be my best, or worst decision of the day.

It turns out to be my best impulsive travel decision in a long time.