WHERE ARE WE ANNE?: IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE ATLAS MOUNTAINS

GORGE DU DADES, MOROCCO

FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN RALLY DRIVING TEAM

19TH NOV 2013

With the Northern Sahara in the rear view mirror, we drove west to Gorge Du Dades. A few people had recommended we stay at Chez Pierre in fact everyone spoke highly of it so we did. We stayed two nights and explored the upper reaches of the Gorge almost as far as you can before it becomes a 4WD exercise.

Chez Pierre had great rooms in the local Pise architecture style. They, like most places suffer from recalcitrant drainage and it seems one other guest used all available hot water early one morning filling up their bath. While the rooms were very good, Chez Pierre is all about the food. European dishes with a Moroccan twist. Very classy cuisine. A set menu which changes every night.

Dades Gorge is spectacular. Writers wax lyrical using words like savage grandeur, mystical, unearthly silence, wild landscape, equalled only by the Grand Canyon etc. Flowery maybe, but I now know what they mean. It is an extraordinary landscape of spectacular rock formations and colours which makes for a sensational day trip.

In this valley where most travel by foot or donkey the Peugeot 505 wagon has conquered the roads. It's the car of choice in Moroccan Beige for the taxi business. They ply the roads of the valley loaded to the gunwhales at a cracking pace. Elsewhere the Mercedes rules but here Peugeot owns the gorge.

At so many spots we stopped at for stunning views, it's also the stunning lack of garbage collection that you gaze across. The world's garbage has to be disposed of and if it's not collected and you've got to do it yourself and you're on foot, you take it to the edge. Hopefully one day, garbage can be disposed of in a better way for these people.