Todra Valley (Tinghrir)

After breakfast in our hotel we walk to the place that has been designated to take a "collectivo", a shared taxi to the Todra valley. We have gathered six people and we drive the 15 kilometers to perhaps the most popular tourist attraction of South Morocco. In this narrow gap which is about 15 km long, the steep walls rise hundreds of meters high. It is chilly here because the sun can not penetrate here at all.

There are a number of buildings here, but we walk out of the valley and walk uphill to go into the mountains. We meet a shepherd with his black sheep and we try to plan a route. It is dry here  with the sun beating down on us, no shade. On this plateau is the only thing we see are many stones, rocks and loose sand. On the way we pass a real Berber tent with some animals; the people are waving to us as we walk on.

The path stops and there is some panic - where do we have to go? The route back is too far and we can hardly find it back. We decide to climb the mountains down here to the valley. First we take some beautiful pictures of the unique landscape. A strip of green with thousands of palm trees together with mud houses and bare rocky mountains. We scramble the entire wall which is kinda dangerous at some places and arrive at the road that we have driven earlier with our van towards the gorge. 

In an oasis-garden restaurant we order a cup of tea and still look up through the steep walls and wonder if that was the smart thing to do. Tired but satisfied we drink our tea and enjoy the rest of the afternoon before we hit the road once more to get back to Tinghrir.