Another detour

Left Tantan this morning with the intention of heading for Essaouira by the coast for a bit of R&R...and then I changed the plan. I decided to head for a pretty walled town called Taroudant which involved passing through the Anti-Atlas mountains again. The sky was clear so I hoped to see what I had missed in the snow last week. So off I went.....and then I decided on a bit of an adventure and to go a slightly round about route.

I headed up this beautiful twisty valley with a new surface on it and though great! Kasbah and Oasis to the right, nice road leading up the valley. Then the road turned to piste....and I though OK, I can handle this.




Then the piste turned a bit hairy and I was riding along a river bed with nice round slippy rocks. I asked the locals what the road was like further on and one told me that the bad bit was another 5k long and then the piste was good. So I continued and was rewarded with some incredible sights. A mini grand canyon with sheer walls hundreds of feet high.


One man's 5k is another man's 15k and eventually....I got to another oasis and found that the way out was a very steep windy path up the cliff. I have to say, I was a little anxious at times ;-) If I dropped the bike, there was going to be a bugger of a job picking it up. This is the view at the start. I couldnt see around the corner.....


And this is the view from about 2/3rd way up. I didnt take a pic at the top because I wanted to get out of there. It was windy as hell. An amazing road/path/piste and one that they wont be putting an asphalt surface on any time soon. The detour meant that I couldnt get to Taroudant so I decided to stop off again in Tafaroute and see the rocks again....no bad thing.