Morocco 2010

From ICCC

People

• Tim "Momo" Burne
• Amie "Aïsha" Young
• Rob "Khalid" Tuley
• Sophie "Zoura" Gore
• Mark "Mustafa" Flower

Trip Report

Journey to Marrakech

With Nina working nights, Mark arrived at Gatwick airport a full 7 hours before bording began. Tim, Amie, Rob and Sophie meanwhile arrived at Manchester airport, getting a different flight. Since both flights touched down in Marrikech within minutes of each other and taxied to adjacent slots Amie managed to spot Mark waiting to get off his flight, and seemed dissapointed that he didn't recognise her waving at him through the airline window some 50m away.

After re-uniting 'airside' and queueing for almost an hour to get through passport control the group emerged into the terminal and found their driver, Omar. Following a brief stop for chicken kebab Omar took everyone to his in-law's garden (which resembled a ploughed field) where they spent the night.

Lower Ourika

Upon awaking everyone was, slightly scarily, individually escorted to the toilet before being fed a massive berber breakfast of bread, more bread, olives, olive oil, tea, more bread and milky rice pudding. After a brief tour of the village by Omar (who was keen to show it, and its satelite TV off to the Europeans) a quick departure was made to the put-in for the Lower Ourika.

At the put-in the Lower Ourika was brown, and flushing through a couple of trees. Not wanting to make a high pressure move so quickly after arriving Mark, Amie and Sophie chickened out, and put on a bit further down. The tone of the river quickly changed, slowing down and broadening. This caused problems for everyone (except Amie) as they found themselves paddling down what appeared to be an irrigation ditch after having got lost on a nearly flat river. After spotting a few turtles the take out was quickly reached.

Since it was not yet noon the decision was made to drive over to the Dadès, which was expected to take almost an entire day. This took the bus over a monsterous pass through the Atlas - with sheer drops occasionally to be found on both sides. After stopping briefly for a tagine in a random cafe everyone got a bit bored, and asked Omar to stop at the local toursit trap - Ait Benhaddou. After taking a few cheeky snaps of camels everyone waded across the river and wandered around the old mud buildings. Mark managed to cross the river on the back of a donkey for free on the way back since neither he, nor the donkey owner had sufficient change. Ice-creams were then purchased for everyone except Tim (who decided they were too expensive) before a swift retreat was beaten to a local hotel. Sadly the local hotel had no hot water, meaning cold showers were taken by everyone. After an egg-based tagine the group retired to bed.

Dadès

Sophie and Amie took another cold shower, before hitting the road. After a brief stop to photograph camels (Mark managed to scare some into the path of oncoming traffic) they arrived at Boumaine-Dadès, and picked up food for the river.

They then drove up the river, stopping again to look at low bridges and to photograph colorado gorge. After devouring some curried chicken they packed, before hopping on at about lunchtime. Mark decided to speed up this process by throwing Tim's boat into the river - much to the amusement of the locals. After a couple of hours paddle and a good few photos a campsite, complete with annoying local kids, was found on a sandy spit beside the river. Sophie and Amie then cooked dinner whilst the boys found some fire wood.

After a reasonable night's sleep an entire jar of chocolate spread was only just sufficent motivation to get people moving - there being no tea. After re-packing boats everyone headed down river, stopping occasionally for more photo's, or to limber under bridges / fallen trees. Since hardly any progress had been made the day before, and the river wasn't flowing tremendously quickly, it took until 6pm to arrive at the take out. By this time Omar had completely tidied the bus, hiding everyone's clothes in neat piles. After changing the group returned to Skouria, choosing to stay in a different place - one which could provide enough water for four hot showers (Rob missed out on hot water by being to too polite to go first).

Atlas mountains

Waking early a decision was made to cross the Atlas mountains, driving as far as possible towards the Ahanesal. Initially good progress was made, however the road quickly became worse as the number of landslides increased. To kill time Rob decided to write a trip report in cartoon format. Since he hadn't brought an A3 pad with him he asked as to look out for a chain of staples. Since staples has yet spread to the Morrocan desert he contented himself with drawing on the back of one of his many maps. Eventually, after many stops for photographs, the group arrived on the fertile, western side of the Atlas.

After a brief stop at a natural bridge (and a walk through for Rob and Mark) Omar took everyone to Azial, where they bought food / were sold overpriced biscuits for the planned trip down the Ahanesal. After a few more hours in the bus they arrived at Cathedral rock in the dark and settled into the Auberge for the night.

Ahanesal

After demolishing the breakfast provided by the Auberge (and requesting more bread, before also finishing that) the group hit the water. Although the river wasn't that high at the put in (but it wasn't clear and blue) it quickly increased in volume as the Melloul joined, causing a few nervous toilet breaks. After inspecting, and paddling, the "portage" under the bridge in Tigougguite Mark tempted fate by saying "it can't get much harder". He turned out to be wrong.

From here the gradient picked up substantially, as the river began to increase in grade from a maximum of III, to a reasonable IV. This caused Sophie to take a potentially disasterous swim - she was carrying the group's bread in the back of her boat. After several hours of finding a grade IV round every bend the gradient began to ease, and everyone started to relax a little and look for a campsite. The first was vetoed (although only after Mark had got out to look at it), before a more luxurious example was found. Indeed the preffered site had a ready made fire pit, complete with hot coals that lit the fire in seconds. After another meal cooked by the ladies Rob sat down to work on his cartoon (still on the back of the map) whilst Mark tried to hide his sunburn from the fire.

Following an excellent nights sleep (everyone being pretty tired) another jar of chocolate spread was required as wake up juice (we had tea, but no milk). The river steepened slightly round the corner, waking everyone up with a sprinkling of grade III rapids. Happily(?) however, the edge of the resevoir arrived soon enough, emerging from the end of one of the thinnest gorges. Mark, who had admitted he couldn't roll the previous day, was then given some rolling practice as the four hour slog to the take out began. This was punctured only by the crossing of 500m of filth - wood chip, shoes, logs and everything else that ended up either in the river or resevoir having collected and barred the exit. Rob and Tim attempted to walk around it whilst Amie and Sophie teamed up, forced their way through and beat them by quite some time. A stop for lunch saw Tim take his fair share of the food before leaving just as the wind got up. Everyone else followed after a few minutes, with Rob, Sophie and Amie taking at least half an hour longer, and being blown condsiderably further, than either Tim or Mark.

Ouzoud

Upon arrival at the bus we attempted to decide where to go get permits for the Ouzoud. Our driver wanted to go to Azial, whilst Tim suggested Beni Mellal would be more profitable. In the end, following an inconclusive phone call, our driver got his way. After failing in both Azial and Ourika we found out that they are only available in Beni Mellal, and that the Police won't look the other way even if you ask nicely. Equally the permits are £25 per person (rather than per group). Although there wasn't a particularly friendly wecome in Ouzoud (rather the locals charged double for food and told us we couldn't kayak the falls), the group stayed the night there anyway. After doing the touristy thing of taking photo's of the falls and taking tea they retired to bed - although Tim was not amused to find that Rob had zipped their sleeping bags together on the double matress they shared.

Oued El Abid Part I

After being charged double for breakfast ("the price that I've written on the end of my stall for the things you've just eaten doesn't apply to you") everyone piled into the bus and drove north, towards the El Abid. This section wasn't in the guidebook, but it met the Ouzoud far below the falls.

After 200m, however, it rapidly became clear that there was a reason it wasn't in the guidebook - it was a complete choss fest. At the first siphon, and since it could have got worse, Mark, Amie and Sophie turned round and walked back to the bridge whilst Tim and Rob carried on to the agreed takeout at Tabia. After walking round a few more siphons they accidentally fell into the Ouzoud wearing kayaks. In the process of getting to the bank as quickly as possible (after all they didn't have permits) they accidentally ran a couple of falls. Since there was no one around to apologise to for their clumsyness they left fairly quickly, arrived at Tagelft and asked Omar to turn round to pick the others up. Meanwhile Mark, Sophie and Amie had arrived back at the bridge, and sent Sophie up to look for Omar in Ouzoud (he wasn't there). After a further 4 hours of waiting Mark managed to get himself and Amie onto a not-quite-full local "bus" (bedford van with 16 others inside - space was made by putting the local's gun alongside the boats on the roof rack). After a fairly interesting journey back to Ouzoud they met Sophie (who was now very bored) before settling down to wait for the others in a local cafe.

Happily Omar swiftly arrived, although was a little disapointed at being asked to drive further to Azial where the group spent the night in the dades hotel. This hotel had the destinction of a group sitting area directly below a window which opened onto the shower. Much fun ensued as clothes / towels were stolen.

Oued El Abid Part II

Since the day had been something of an epic an easier section was chosen for the following day's paddle. The Oued El Abid around Tegelft fitted this description perfectly, since it was actually in the guidebook with nothing remotally hard on it. Rather there were plenty of play waves upon which Mark and Amie practiced their flat spins. Sophie, meanwhile, thought that was a little too energetic and spent time watching baby turtles.

After Mark had successfully stolen Rob's drain bung (without him knowing) a general game of how-much-water-can-we-get-in-Rob's-boat-without-him-knowing began. Bowstalls, tail squirts and rolls were all in order. Sadly Rob couldn't be convinced that his brand new boat had a hole it, and noticed before much more water could be added. Upon arrival at the take out Mark was given more rolling practice, before lunch was taken at a local cafe.

After lunch everyone piled into the minibus and bought food for that evening (and for lunch the following day) in Tagelft, before heading over two massive passes and a demonstration to the put in for the Melloul at Anergui. Arriving just before sunset everyone was pleased to find an auberge, and even happier when they found they could get an excellent discount if they didn't order food. Camping-stove pasta was cooked, although Omar seemed a little forced when he said he thought it was excellent.

Melloul

The Melloul was in the guidebook as a I-III river. The group set off down the valley on a grey river under grey skies - possibly a fitting metaphor given it would quickly become apparent this river was somewhat harder.

After cruising through a few grade IV rapids Mark eddied out directly above two massive bolders blocking any sight of what lay down stream. Resisting the temptation to drop into the obvious eddy on river left (which was below a cliff but would have afforded an excellent view of the river) he invited Rob to inspect. Rob did just that, and discovered the first grade V rapid. After Sophie, Amie and Mark walked around it Tim and Rob manned up and bosched out perfect lines.

Shortly afterwards the river mellowed a little, allowing a stop for lunch. The addition of extra thermals caused the sun to come out almost immediately, which was very welcome to everyone excpet Mark who had lost his hat the previous day. After some more cruisy grade II/III the river picked up a little as the rocks changed from brown to grey. A grade IV rapid unseated Sophie, who was promptly rescued by Rob and Tim. The subsequent boat chase saw them run the second grade V blind. Rather than follow this heroic line Amie and Mark decided to portage. The river was flat from here, so a little bordem ensued, punctuated only by the sight of monkeys and Amie following Tim into a pour-over, before swimming out. This more than offset the brownie points Tim had previoulsy earnt by presenting Amie with the easter eggs he had smuggled out from England.

After re-uniting with Omar at Tilougguite the group returned to the Dades hotel in Azial, stopping in the same hotel for dinner but this time ordering bigger portions.

Upper Ourika

An early start saw the ambitios plan of two rivers in one day - the Lachdar followed by the Zate. Upon arrival at Skat it quickly became apparent that the Lachdar was nearly empty. Of more interest was the number of donkeys. Omar explained that it was market day, and the donkey was the local's equivalent of a 4x4. A mule, he explained, was a turbo 4x4.

The Zate had a similar amount of water, so the group pressed on to Setti-Fatma, and the put-in for the upper Ourika. This turned out to be a gem of a river, and was by far the steepest that was paddled. Happily the water levels were generally lower than other rivers, although this did mean there were more bridges to duck. Amie quickly decided that she didn't like the river (perhaps the number of tourists applauding as she sped by didn't help), and joined Sophie off the river. This gave them the opportunity to throw food at the boys (who hadn't eaten since breakfast) from occasional foot bridges as they followed down in the bus.

After giving Sophie a quick thank-you hug (sadly Mark had forgotten he was still in kit) everyone retired to Omar's in law's garden to spend the night. After hanging up their kit they devoured couscous and tomato omlette for dinner. This time slightly flatter sleeping spots were found.

Marrakesh

After being stuffed with a breakfast of bread, more bread, olives, olive oil, tea, coffee, bread and rice soup the group waddled to the bus and headed into Marrakesh. Sadly the airport didn't have a left luggage office, meaning the boats had to be taken to the hotel. After getting lost in the souks, and failing to persuade Rob to purchase a £25 orange leather baseball cap the group managed to find a beer shop. Sadly, at approximately £5 per pint, no one could afford more than 2.

Tim and Amie left early the next morning, and arrived at the airport just in time for the check in to completely break. Mark, Rob and Sophie meanwhile went to the Jardin Majorelle and spent time taking arty photo's, and guessing where all the tourists came from. After getting ripped off for lunch again Mark went to the airport for his flight (where things had improved a bit), whilst Rob and Sophie settled down for a couple of days on their own.

Media

Sophie's photos Pyranha Blog Post