In the Todra gorge

All the colors of Morocco

[Tripper: Paola]

IT

There are places on earth that seem to have nothing in particular, yet have a magnetic appeal that makes you stay. Put two mountains that almost touch each other. Put the red of the rock that contrasts with the blue of a sky without filters defined by pollution, with the green of date palms and sparse shrubs that overcome the dryness of the earth.
Put a river that carves a canyon day after day, years after years until it lines up centuries.

Towards the Todra gorges (Morocco)

Tryatrip to the gorges

Today little water remains of that impetuous river, which almost always flows slowly: good water for washing clothes, for watering mules or goats.
Every now and then he gets angry again and sweeps away what the arrogant man wanted to build in a place that belongs to nature.
The paved road that runs near the river bed makes access easy but also less romantic. I always remain debated between full accessibility and anthropization of the territory. Foreclosing the beauty of nature to those who do not have the means to face it in its roughness is not beautiful, even if it is perhaps an integral part of its beauty. On the other hand, it is not even right to consume the territory to make it fully usable by man. To you the sentence, I do not go out.
Coming back to us, I haven't told you where we are yet.
Looking east from the Moroccan High Atlas mountain range, there are gorges carved by the Todra and Dades rivers. Here, in particular, we are in the Todra gorges, reachable from Tinerhir, the nearest city or directly from Marrakech with different tours to Merzouga (the gateway to the Sahara).
We started with a private tour of several stages and to visit the gorges we stayed overnight at the Dades Xaluca Hotel, which welcomed us in a surprisingly warm way.
The gorge teems with life: scarf sellers, Bedouins weaving small animals with palm leaves, women washing clothes in the river, multis who doze in the almost dry river bed, tourists who venture more or less crafty along the paths that they climb the mountain. Some buildings had the ambition of bringing tourists to stay right inside the valley, but the power of water has given nature back the power to decide its fate and today traces of it remain mostly abandoned.
The colors of Morocco meet in this narrow passage: all that riot of warm colors that the territory offers is echoed by the gaudy clothes of proud Bedouins.
We are sure that you will be charmed, as we are.
Have a good trip!