Four Seasons In One Day

Got going fairly early (for me...9am) and started off south west through an valley stuffed with Acacia trees.For a tree that has given its name to hundreds of streets in the UK, it is a bit of a let down. None of the specimens I saw were taller than 5m and most were decidedly ticthy. There was plenty of evidence of the recent rain and the damage caused with roads washed away and lots of gravel/dust/clay.


I decided to head for Tafaroute to see some famous painted rocks and the 'Chapeau de Napoleon' so I turned north-east and back up into the Anti-Atlas mountains. More spectacular scenery than you can shake a stick at. You can get blase about it, there is so much jaw dropping stuff to see. If this scenery was available in europe, there would be trains of coaches clogging the roads. All I saw for the morning were about 10 cars....just me on this incredible twisty road (good surface too!) pootling along at 55mph rubber-necking the whole time.


Then I paid for the morning and got '4 seasons in 1 day'. I climbed on up to about 1700m and went about 50km and the weather started to close in. With about 90k to go to Tafaroute, it started to sleet/snow and the temp dropped to -1. In a car this would not be much of a problem (heater/wipers/stereo etc) but with my visor fogging up on the inside and the snow sticking to the outside, it took 3 hours to do the 90k and I didnt see jack. All I knew is that if the views (and drops) were anything like those on the climb up, then it was best to slow down and stick to the middle of the road. Checked into the finest hotel in town ( i.e. the one with a bath) and started the thaw.