The road up to Dades Gorge and then over the mountains was absolutely bonkers. It's almost impossible to explain it to you and none of the photos do it justice.
First things first, please remember we did this mental road in a Series 3 Land Rover which is 50 years old. Given the mountain pass we were about to cross, this was kinda crazy. Apparently it used to be Morocco's most dangerous road but we had spoken to people that said they'd crossed it recently and they said some road work had been done on it so it wasn't as bad as it used to be.
I'm sorry these photos are a bit out of sequence. Just imagine coming up the road and doing these crazy switch backs before winding through valleys where agriculture continues as it has for thousands of years. It was refreshingly green in places.
There was also lots of fruit trees - in the mountains, the top temp is no more than 30 degrees and of course in Winter it snows.
Children waved as we climbed upward until there was not a soul to be seen, bar the occasional worker in a digger. Within a few years this mountain pass would definitely be paved and it will be a tourist road to rival the Tizze n Test down to Marrakech, but for now we were winding along the gravel and looking down into horrifying gorges below. Seriously, my heart was in my mouth - if we went over the edge, it would be certain death. The road was super narrow so if anyone came the other way, you had to reverse back up to let them pass.
At one point a campervan came the other way and slid out on the corner. I thought for sure they'd go over but they recovered thank God. I was a bit annoyed as I don't think anyone should drive this road without being a good driver and they should have seen us coming round the bend like we saw them.
I do trust Jamie's driving implicitly. He is very cautious but also very skilled. Otherwise there's no way I could have stomached it. I do wish my photos captured how insane this road was.
Butters got quite hot on the way over. But boy we were proud of her! She really did a great job. It was lucky we got the brakes fixed the day before that's for sure!
Later, we realized the higher temperature of the car was likely due to dodgy fuel. Jamie changed the fuel filter and we let the car almost run out before we got more at a Shell in a bigger town. Lucky, as Jamie worried it might be the radiator!
As we got over the pass and down a few miles, the road became more paved and the journey down would be a lot smoother. Still, you just can't imagine the vastness of these mountain ranges and the depth of these crazy gorges.
We had heard the kids over at Tizze n Test were quite demanding for bon bons or sweets and of course last years earthquake has caused even more poverty. However in this stretch it wasn't so sad and desperate. The kids did run up to the car but Jamie just gave them high fives which made the boys laugh.
Some of the kids did give us the finger but we just think they were little shits, like you get in any culture. And they must have learnt that gesture from westerners as well. We saw on Van Life Morocco group that some kids had thrown stones at their campers which is a bit shitty.
Later we would feel a bit sad we didn't do some of the other awesome off-road drives in Morocco but really you can't do it all.
And this would definitely go down as one of the best drives we have ever done.
With Love,
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here
You are on a dream trip, and I love following along vicariously. I can't help but see endless places to launch and fly a paraglider there. I know many people like the coast for the dunes, but damn that is some SERIOUSLY flyable country! I'm honestly drooling and trying to figure out how to get there with a family of 4.
Oh you know I never saw paragliders but I reckon it'd be an amazing thing to do!
Oof, looking at those roads in the pictures, I instantly get reminded of a Dutch tv show "most dangerous roads in the world" where two famous Dutch people are driving through another country every episode, some of these mountain drives made me sick even from watching it on TV. I think it's not for me to do that in real life haha.
Glad you survived those roads :)