A Palm Gorge in Ait Mansour Morocco
We’re driving out of Tafraout on a narrow mountain road in early April. Heading to a palm gorge in Ait Mansour, Morocco on a misty morning.
These palm filled Gorges d’Ait-Monsour are supposedly in the most beautiful setting and we can’t wait to see it for ourselves.
Mist thickens
As the mountain road climbs higher, the mist thickens. It’s an eerie feel, yet equally incredible, as swathes of grey surround us.
Peeping out momentarily is the bluest spring sky – a welcome sight and spectacular natural display. As the gorge approaches, the mist clears, providing a theatrical entrance into the most spectacular scenery imaginable.
Rock formations and those palms
The single lane track leads ahead into the midst of a palm tree splendour. The gorge walls surround the campervan as we pause to take in the landscape. These tall, red tone cliffs rise towards the deep blue sky, providing a truly mesmerising mix of colour.
It’s barely 8am and we’re alone here. There’s no better time of day, with the stillness of morning and clarity of the air deepening the senses.
All around are huge palm trees. They stand tall, their green palms protruding against the backdrop of the red cliffs and rock formations.
Overhanging palms – A Palm Gorge in Ait Mansour Morocco
Our pause for contemplation in this wonderful gorge oasis comes to an end. It’s time to press on with the drive along this undeniably fascinating place.
As the track winds ahead, the palm trees overwhelm the road. Branches hang low, touching the campervan and providing an almost forgotten world like feel.
Although it’s remote here, we do come across some buildings, hidden momentarily by the palms. There’s just a couple of locals walking beside, but otherwise, there’s still no-one else here.
Deeper into the gorge, the road sweeps beside the most picturesque stream. The palm trees provide shadow above the blue waters, and the suns rays occasionally break through gaps in the branches.
This section of the palm gorge is the most spectacular. It’s a kind of hidden world, like something from a movie set or faraway forest.
Coffee amongst the palms
A little further along the road, deep into the palms of the gorge is a lay by. Here, where the road momentarily widens, brings opportunity to pop the kettle on and make coffee.
We stand with our mugs in hand in the open air. Enjoying the surrounds, taking in the beauty of this route and listening to the sounds of morning.
A couple of stray dogs pass, something we’re weary of in Morocco, with the risk of Rabies. Thankfully, the dogs aren’t interested in us travellers, instead they continue on their way through a stone track amongst the trees.
Retracing our drive – A Palm Gorge in Ait Mansour Morocco
After the last sips of coffee, we hop back inside the campervan and drive on through this wonderful gorge.
Continuing the drive for another 10 minutes or so brings us out of the palm trees and into an open area.
The road ahead winds its way up out of the gorge, a route we’re not taking. Instead, it’s time for us to turn around, retracing our drive through the palm tree gorge of Ait Mansour.
Driving the route in reverse brings a new outlook from the cab. We’re taking everything in, enjoying these landscapes and the red tinge rocky cliffs either side of us.
As we leave the gorge behind, we join the road to Tiznit, but all is not well.
Thick fog descends
Everything here in Morocco takes longer, the roads are generally good, but old vehicles and mountainous routes make traffic slow.
We’re high up still, on the top of a mountain pass when thick fog descends. Initially, we drive on, hoping for a break in the grey, thick mass engulfing the windscreen.
As the fog worsens, our visibilty becomes pretty much zero. We can’t see anything other than fog. It’s scary and we’ve no way of seeing if there’s a place to pull over and sit it out.
We can’t see cars coming towards us, just the dimness of their lights breaking through the dense fog.
Then, there’s a brief break in the thickness of the foggy mass and we think we can see a lay by to our right.
We make our move, hoping we’re right in what we think we’re seeing. There’s a glimpse of a barrier, beyond which is a flat looking stone area, but that’s it, we can’t see anything else at all.
Turning off the engine in what we hope is a lay by brings optimism of the fog lifting. Unfortunately, the minutes turn into hours and still the fog lingers.
This thick mass of grey has come in deeper, stronger and more scary looking than ever.
We make coffee, eat lunch and wait and wait and wait. The fog is going nowhere and neither are we.
Making our move
By late afternoon, there’s a slight improvement, or so we think. We can see the road beyond this stone parking place and there’s plenty of cars driving by.
We know we’re driving down the mountain, so visibility should hopefully only get better as we go lower.
With this, we make our move, re-joining the road and making our way off the mountain pass.
Terrifying near miss
We’re only gone a few minutes, with the fog actually still relatively thick and visibility equally poor, the unimaginable happens.
We can’t believe what we’re seeing and everything goes into slow motion. As we drive down hill we notice headlights coming towards us uphill. Surely not? This turns out to be a terrifying near miss. There’s a car overtaking 2 vehicles on an up hill bend, in the thick fog and coming straight for us.
We don’t get time to react, we just freeze in time, as the car and the wide eyes of the driver stare back at us in disbelief.
Somehow, luck is with us this day, as the driver somehow squeezes into a gap between the 2 cars. Missing us by a whisker, shocked and relieved at the same time, we know this is one of those moments we’ll be talking about for a long time to come.
Reaching Tiznit
Just as we thought, as we descend lower and lower on this mountain pass, the fog becomes thinner and eventually disappears.
By the time we reach Tiznit we decide to give stopping here a miss. It just looks too big and busy. We don’t think we’ll cope well with any more driving demands today.
Instead, we think we’ll head for the coast of Morocco, which will be our first sight of the sea in a while. At the end of the day, we’re ready for a day of rest!
