LOCATION: Dades Valley
What's happening?
Going to make this short and sweet today. No internet availability in the rooms means a trip to reception to sit amongst the football watchers to get connected.
The Adventure
Started the day with breakfast on the balcony overlooking the valley and noted how quiet everything is here in the Kasbah. I would estimate there is capacity for 300 guests here - and we are the only four so far! Felt that they had served enough food for the other 296 guests. It was a buffet selection on our table - mounds of food choices. I am a non eater today - opting instead for a combo of gastrostop and hydralyte. So much waste but @Mohammed did try and ease the guilt by saying the workers would enjoy later.
So lucky, balcony to ourselves with buffet served up on the table!
It is only a 40 minute drive to our destination today. Needed to travel through the gaps created by the ever encroaching red sandstone cliffs. Lots of height, twists and turns and switchbacks that had us in a cycle of gaining height and losing height as we traversed the old route of the camel trains. This ribbon of road was the land of a thousand kasbahs and a thousand switchbacks. Red, fortified towers, mostly abandoned and with mud walls that seemed to be melting and collapsing back into the mountain. And the ones still in use were converted to cafes, restaurants or accommodation.
The architecture here was amazing. Gaping holes were literally carved into the mountainside and the homes form part of the mountain. In many areas what seem like balancing rocks, appear to teeter above the building - no doubt, a tremor would send them tumbling. Very small windows are set into the walls. The heat of the sun and then the cold from the snow kept at bay by the thick walls.
Today's walk was the one that had caused some consternation on reading the itinerary before we left Australia. Read as if we were hiking for 15 kms in three hours. The reality was much different.
Straight ftom the itinerary - this had set the cat among the pigeons!
Your experience in Dades will last approximately 5.5 hours in total and includes a 14–15 km trek, which will take around 2 to 3 hours on foot. It is a moderately easy walk with manageable slopes, no steep hills, and varied terrain. This will be an incredible experience, but if you are unable to join this walk then you have the option of spending the day in the hotel and the surrounding area.
Plenty of variety in the gorge - and the colours
We met our local guide @Ahyu at the entrance to the gorge walk. A 28year old Amazhir (Berber), he was a local with three sisters who lived wIth his parents. He hadn't finished secondary school because it was "too far" and he works the land and restores and rennovates their home with his father. They have diversified their business by guiding people on the gorge walk and by hosting visitors in their home for a traditional meal.
Dades Gorge is one of Morocco’s most dramatic landscapes — a twisting, red‑rock canyon carved over millions of years by the Dades River. It was once an ancient underwater coral reef pressed into rock and then later lifted by tectonic forces and ultimately carved by the Dades River.
The gorge walls rise 200 to metres and are ochre red. The valley floor, @Ahyu's farmland, is a palm grove, teeming with fruit trees and crops for the family's survival.
The farm walk was the entrance to the gorge and the 'Monkey's Fingers." They are eroded sandstone and limestone pillars arranged in long vertical “digits.” .Over time, wind and water carved away the softer material of the conglomerate rock, leaving the harder “knuckles” protruding.
There was no need to worry about the hike. You negotiated with your guide on the length of time you wanted to spend. Our little group nominated the two hour option. Although cooler than the Sahara, it was still 33 degrees and we were doing this hike in the middle of the day.
After two hours of walking, we were glad to climb the stairs to @Ahyu's home and take up a spot on the floor for the tea making demonstration and then lunch. Chicken targine and Moroccan salad prepared by his Mum. Just like the gorge - slowly, slowly.
The drive home was spectacular and the switch backs and views just as dramatic.
We were home in the Kasbah by 5 pm and settled into a lazy afternoon of taking care of UK business, watching the sunset from the terrace and grabbing a soccer match in the comfort of reception. Was good to actually "draw breath" and our dinner was a cold drink, some leftover cherries and a handful of popcorn. @TheRoyals went upmarket and boiled up some water for 2 minute noodles. We were all targined and saladed out!
Survival Barometer
Steps: 10 837
Weather: 33 degrees
Can you believe that?
A little background from Co-Pilot.
The Weird & Wonderful on the Road to Dades Gorge
🏜️ 1. Monkey Fingers — Rocks That Look Suspiciously AliveThese bulbous, knobbly sandstone formations genuinely look like a giant buried its hand in the earth and forgot to pull it out. Locals call them Les Doigts des Singes.
They glow pink at sunrise and look like they’re breathing when the shadows move.
🧱 2. Kasbahs That Melt — Architecture Made of MudAs you drive through the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs, you’ll see fortresses that look like they’re slowly slumping into the earth.
They’re made of pisé (packed mud), so after rain they literally reshape themselves.
Some look like chocolate castles left in the sun.
🧊 3. The Road of 1000 Switchbacks — A Zigzag Designed by Someone UnhingedThe final climb into the gorge is a stack of hairpins so tight they look like a child scribbled on a map.
From above, it’s one of the most photographed roads in Morocco
4. Villages That Appear Out of NowhereYou’ll be driving through barren, Martian landscapes… then suddenly a lush green oasis appears with mud-brick villages tucked inside.
It feels like someone switched scenes without warning
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