Morocco Adventure Tours

The Atlas Cedar, Springs & Rivers                       Walking, Hiking and Trekking

departures: daily (5 hours hike)

Your Well trained mountain guide will be ready to take on a day hiking journey in the Middle Atlas mountain starting at 8.30 am. This hiking journey will be towards the south and the foothills of the Middle Atlas Ranges. After some 30 minutes, we arrive at the small 1920s French-built hill station of Immouzèr du Kandar (4000 ft). Here we'll pause for 30 minutes by the kasbah for a look at the little medina and take in the pleasant Saiss Plateau and distant Fes. We will visit some troglodytes still even to today used by local families as their dwellings. We will later drive to the squeaky-clean Moroccan pseudo-Swiss town of Ifrane (5445ft), with its slanted, russet-tiled roofs hidden amidst a forest of cedar, which cannot grow below 5000 ft. Ifrane is mainly a winter ski resort - and a summer hideaway for rich Moroccans wishing to escape the hustle and heat of the large cities.

Only few Miles south of Ifrane we will reach the first real town in the central Atlas - Azrou - which, in the local Tamazight Berber dialect means "rock," As it is built all round the massive outcrop of rock from which this town takes its name - was for a long time a strategic settlement established to effect some form of control of the independent mountain Berber peoples. All these tribes around Azrou mainly from the Beni Mguild Clans gather on Tuesday Market (Souq) to trade their goods and produce. From here we set out on our easy hike up through forests of evergreen holm oak, cork and juniper until we reach some 1600m where we shall find the giant cedar trees. We continue our easy hike up alongside coves and little gorges to the summit of Ain Kharzouza (6270 ft), where we shall stop on a ridge for our picnic, overlooking the verdant Tigrigra Valley, Azrou and the important Amazigh village of Aïn Leuh (Wood spring).

After Lunch, we descend down the other side of the mountain through stands of cedar and along Timehdet plateau where the semi-nomadic Berber shepherds graze their flocks. During the months of April to October, we shall be welcomed by these Berber tribespeople who have set up here their large, black felt nomadic tents here and there in these valleys. We stroll down through the Tizi Tioumliline (4800 ft), where we'll get to see the Barbary
apes which patrol this area before taking a long, winding mule track alongside Oued Sebbab, with its little waterfalls until we reach the traditional Amazigh green-tiled roofed arcades of Azrou's market square, medina and ruined kasbah –

Cost per person: $125.00

(minimum 2 persons): $125
(4 persons) : $85 pp


Our price includes:

Experienced, licensed mountain guide throughout
Round trip transportation Fez - Azrou - Fez
Light picnic lunch
Bottled water 
Picnic lunch - fresh Moroccan salad, Tagine of Fresh mixed vegetables, bread, fruit, mint tea.

Note:

* If vegetarian or vegan, please pre-advise.

Our prices do not include:

Personal medical or accident insurance
Any expenditure of a personal nature
Bottled or gaseous water,

.

What to bring:

Good trainers or walking boots
Hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, nibbles, filled water bottle, binoculars, hygienic 'wipes
NB: 48 hours' notice is required when booking for 3 or more persons, given the scarcity of minibuses in
Fes.

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY - GRADE ONE -

WALKING MOSTLY ON PATHS AT LOWER LEVELS, SOMETIMES ROCKY, SELDOM FLAT, FOR ABOUT
5 TODAY. GOOD TRAINERS WOULD DO, BUT TAKE BOOTS IF YOU ARE USED TO THEM. FOR ANYONE WHO LEADS A REASONABLY ACTIVE LIFE. HIKING ALWAYS INVOLVES SOME EFFORT.