After a restful night’s sleep it’s a beautiful morning, there’s still snow on the top of the mountains and the pool is freezing so a walk it is. Our base, Tinerhir is a village between two oases. In the northern part of Tinerhir is the Todra Gorge, our destination later today but first, we’re going to walk in the East of Tinerhir in the Tinerhir oasis. The oasis cuts an enormous green swath through the dusty valley and is populated with villages that have landscaped the land for their agricultural needs. The people here live by subsistence, relying on the land to hopefully weather and water permitting give them what they need to live year by year. As we commence our walk with our local guide he takes us through the palmeraie – a French word for a grove or plantation of date palm trees – and the palmeraie here iis an example of a working date plantation. As we walk, we learn from our guide how dates are grown and its really not what we expected. So date palms are unusual in that they are either male or female. The male tree produces pollen and the female produces flowers and as neither the birds or the bees are attracted to the flowers, the females have to be hand-pollinated. Who knew. In addition, it takes 6 years from planting before the first pollen/flowers are produced, talk about labour of love. Harvest is in September and is a time of great celebration. We continue our walk through the vegetable gardens full of alfafa, cabbages, potatoes, corn, mint and lemon verbena with crystal clear irrigation channels flowing freely beside our feet, sun is shining and cobalt blue sky overhead. Farmers both men and women are hard at work planting, weeding and harvesting with donkeys very much in evidence. Egret work side by side with the farmers patiently waiting for bugs to be disturbed as the soil is moved. As we wander there’s riots of scarlet wild poppies swaying gently in the breeze, it really is a idyllic setting for a walk. We walk for around 90 minutes and the bus meets us at the Sacred Fishes cafe that is a beautiful pool of water full strangely enough of fishes..
One of Morocco’s most spectacular natural wonders, the Todra Gorge, is a series of limestone canyons carved out over the centuries by a once-powerful river. The gorge walls soar to 300m in places, while it’s just 10m across at its narrowest point. Our bus drops us at the beginning of the gorge and we walk on a paved road alongside the river. As well as being reknowned for the beauty of the walks in the area, the gorge is also prime climbing territory and as we walk alongside the river we marvel at those brave enough to climb the vertiginous heights with just a thin piece of rope keeping them secure. It’s and impressive spectacle. We rejoin the bus and adjourn for a late lunch and a round of carpet buying. There is a rug that catches our eye but it’s far too expensive and after a quick round of negotiations its a no and we retire to the sidelines with our mint tea whilst a number of our group negotiate their purchases.
We walk downtown for dinner and before settling on a venue which we explore the thriving local produce market where everyone wants to sell us something from clothing to silver to fossils. Fortunately, we resist the temptation to purchase anything and find a cafe to alfresco albeit in jackets, after all life’s always better when you can eat outside. We return to the hotel for a swift beer before returning to our room to complete our repack as guess what we’re on the move again tomorrow.
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