Adventure to the rock paradise of Morocco: Gorges of Tohra

After leaving the village life of Sidi-Fah, we aimed to the famous Tohra gorges for some hiking. When we had lunch in the town of Tinerhir, we met a guy who claimed to be a musician and invited us to his village. He said there was cheap camping, there was also a production house making fig spirit, there is also a wedding tonight that we can join. We were attracted by his suggestion. Although Douar Ait Boujane is on the opposite side of the valley from the side entering the Tohra gorge, he said his village is more or less the same as the village in Tohra gorge. It is said to be  less touristy. Attracted by less touristic but local experience we followed the musician.

Instead of waiting for two hours for the minibus going to the musician village, we took a collective taxi for the first part of the journey. Then we had to cross the valley to the village. For the first time to see the oasis-like green valley between both sides of deserts, it is a new experience to see how fields are explored in the dry land. However the walk across was long and tough, especially with full packs like ours. It turned out that there was no camping at all and the so-called "musician" took us to homestay of which the price was out of our budget. The production house fig spirit was closed for another two hours. It seems that we fell on the zeal of the incompetent local who knew not much about his village. So we decided to leave and went back to our original plan.

from one side of the valley seeing another, the entrance of Tohra Gorges

 
After all these hurdles, we finally found a place to stay in a hostel before it got dark in the Todra Gorges. It was low season and could negotiate a discount to stay for two nights in a room with shared toilet. We cooked with our own stove to save some cost.







Well, we were introduced to this place by the guidebook, no wonder it got touristic with luxurious hotels. However, the beauty of the rock was not masked by such superficial. We went out immediately after check-in to walk along the comfortable road into the gorge under moonlight. No car, quiet, though a little unnatural to walk on a flat concrete road between two sides of straight cliffs, we enjoyed the serenity. At the same time we looked forward to stepping on the uneven land surface. It is the more natural walking back to nature, as inspired by Hundertwasser, by stepping on uneven ground instead of the concrete road.

The day trip was marvelous. We realized that the rock surface in front of the hostel was for climbing and there were people doing that. Without gear and not wanna take cost for climbing tour, we just looked and hoped that one day we could bring our own gear for the climbs. 




 

Then we walked along the road to the end and there opened huge rock areas and hiking routes. From there we saw some people climbing on higher routes on the tooth-like ridges. We envied them for such a nice climbing trip.

it is all for climbing !!!

Hiking on the dry land was not easy and we got thirst easily. We used up all the water we brought with no refill and had to go back to the hostel with dry throats. Under the blue sky the rock shined with yellow and red. It is a climber paradise.

Do you find the climbers ?

We left the next day with the hope that one day we shall come back and climb.