After 8 hours train ride, in late afternoon we finally come back to Marrakech, where we had spent the first two days of traveling through Morocco. As we mentioned in an earlier post, for a trip across the desert we would not have enough time, because on 7th May early in the morning we already have a flight back to Italy – Milano. As we saw in Marrakech practically everything, instead of slacking and sitting in bars, we made a decision, that last day of our trip we will spent in one-day excursion to Ouzoud waterfalls. We reserved our excursion through our hostel (Amour de Riad) because prices are virtually in all local “agencies” the same. For two persons, we paid 500 mad, which still isn’t exactly a little, but okay.
At eight in the morning, our tour guide is already waiting for us. He escorted us to the outgoing location, and from there we started our tour to the waterfalls. The road to get there takes about 3 hours (about 250 kilometres) and for a ride, we have a new and quite comfortable minibus (without air conditioning). Ouzoud waterfalls and the village was named after the olives – why this is so, it is clear from the outset. In the Berber language Ouzoud means olive, around the neighbourhood grow plenty of them – each olive tree has its owner, which is marked with a specific colour. With a local guide (for which we need to pay extra 30 mad per person – even through it all should be already included) we go through the narrow forest path to the first lookout point. Here we see what the beautiful landscape and how big the fall is in fact. Cascades d ‘Ouzoud is the second highest in Africa, forthwith to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The water in the depth falls for 110 meters. Forest and surroundings around the waterfalls is a very popular camping point for young Moroccans, but because of the large tourist visits and their relationship to the environment, this area is becoming increasingly pollute.
We walked 8 kilometres long route, on a steep, overgrown slope down to the last cascade of the waterfall. The entire route is through the countryside and there is no secure areas… respectively nothing at all. With some weird step, it can be a little awkward and particularly interesting, if instead of hiking boots or sneakers, you wear flip-flops as Borut 🙂 …Day ended with a friendly Barbary monkey, with which we did a few photos and then drove back toward Marrakech. The place is worth a visit despite the relatively high price. Here you can see the green nature, with trees and other plants-covered landscape, which is much more familiar to us – more than other desert regions of Morocco.
Our Moroccan story we ended pleasantly tired.. we walked, drove and saw quite big part of this African country. That was amazing experience, which we suggest to all, who want to meet new and different culture. In our view, it is a fairly safe country, with not too intrusive locals (except when the word goes on sale at stalls). All of them want to help you to find a hostel, landmark or restaurant (of course in change for a money).
For now we can only wait, for a new opportunity and new our journey – until then follows the real life in our beloved Slovenia.
See you.
S & B
