This dramatic gorge cuts into the Atlas range and is accessible by metalled road for 40 miles, and thereafter tracks which eventually cross the mountains over high level passes. As we had a 2 hour drive to reach the mouth of the gorge, we settled for 30 miles up on tarmac and then retrace our steps so as to get back in daylight.
There were a some splendid narrow sections, as above, which slowed us down to 20 miles per hour at best as did the zigzag climb shown in the photo below. At the top of the zigzag we had a great view of the way we had just come. As we gained height also, the temperature dropped, falling to 6 degrees at the point we turned round. It also came on to rain, giving the landscape the grey, dismal appearance of the Welsh Valleys. Look you, we aren’t used to this sort of weather!
This cliff is known as the hill of human bodies. It probably needs bright sunshine to bring out all the shapes (bring them to life so to speak) but it was still impressive, rising up several hundred feet.
It brightened up again on the way down and we noticed the locals about their usual business as in the next photo for example, washing clothes in the river. It’s seeing these sorts of things that make you realise what an easy life we have back home.
We didn’t get back in daylight, as it happens, because of police holding up the traffic on a particularly barren stretch of countryside for about half an hour while a film crew was shooting, then dismantling and packing away. There was nothing to give any clue about the subject of the filming. Perhaps a documentary on the phenomenon of traffic queues in the desert at twilight?
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