Back on the Piste… Dades to Todra Gorge

Back on the Piste… Dades to Todra Gorge

Rather than taking the conventional ‘Route National’ between the Dades and Todra gorges, we decided instead to take the long way around and head up the Dades gorge, into the mountains, visit Agoudal, and then back down the Todra gorge.  It turned out to be a spectacular journey with some magnificent wild camping at high altitude with stunning views.

Our trip started in the Dades gorge where we camped our first night at the ‘Monkey’s Paws’ – a very unique rock formation apparently only found in Morocco and Brazil.  We spent our first day hiking up into the canyon for some close up views.

We then set out up the gorge on what we thought was an all-road route up to the mountain town of Agoudal. Wrong!

After some very spectacular roads through some remote villages we met a Unimog coming the other way.  We stopped to chat and the occupants told us that the tarmac finished around the next bend and then it was up, up, up on a winding piste.  We had doubts. Should we proceed or should we bottle it?  We conferred with the campervan following us – and we agreed we’d continue in convoy.

The road very quickly turned into track and not soon after into a series of switchbacks that climbed the side of the mountain. The campervan failed at the first hurdle and it took an hour turning it around for its return descent.

We carried on and climbed to 2500m where we camped on a saddle with unbelievable views down the gorge.  The next day we continued our climb along narrow tracks cut into the mountain side to crest at 3000m and then across a plateau to Agoudal. From there we descended into the Todra gorge, camping on the way and ending our journey near Tinghir.

A fabulous trip and we think we raised a few eyebrows from bikers and 4×4 cars we encountered en route!!