ROUTE FROM MERZOUGA TO MEKNES: ZIZ VALLEY, AZROU AND IFRANE

Send

Today's stage would be the longest of our entire tour of Morocco. We would leave behind the Erg Chebbi desert in Merzouga to cross the Ziz Valley to the north and set course for the imperial city of Meknes. We pass through beautiful landscapes and visit the cities of Azrou and Ifrane. Here we tell you how it went.

What must have been a day of transition, without too many shocks, ended up becoming almost on a safari route! We saw camels in the desert, little fish in the Meski fountain, hairy goats and donkeys constantly on both sides of the road, we crossed an area of wild dogs (although they looked very majetes) and we ended up seeing monkeys of Gibraltar in the forest of Azrou cedars. But we go in parts ...

Since Merzouga we start the route to Erfoud, leaving a few kilometers to our left Risani, which should be at that time celebrating its famous market. They told us that it is the only place where the market is held 3 times a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) and where the inhabitants of the up to 300 nearby villages meet to sell and exchange their products. It must be a sight worth seeing!

But we have a few km ahead and we would not make the first stop until a viewpoint over a beautiful palm grove, where we bought a very cool geode. You will already have become familiar with the sellers of fossils and natural geodes, since all this part of Morocco is full of these treasures. Many locals go looking for them, as well as others in Spain go for mushrooms, and then sell them to tourists (or even online). If you are wondering if they are true, it seems to us (obviously NOT colored geodes), from trilobite fossils to crystal rocks.

Before arriving at Er Rachidia, the village of Meski. There flows a Natural source (the Source Bleue) in a beautiful landscape. We read that the water comes out hot, although we touched it and rather it was cool. But the place is an oasis of peace. This channel, where the locals go to wash their clothes, ends in a swimming pool (hopefully the water is not the same), where you can take a refreshing bath. There is a bar right there to make a pit stop and replenish energy.

Although the real attraction of the N13 is the road itself that runs between the Ziz Valley, where the river has been digging a huge cleft, although at this time of the year little is the water that falls. But the panorama is brutal. There are several viewpoints where to contemplate the Ziz Valley, at the point where the river makes a spectacular sickle (just before a bridge). Some are also passed Ksur and Kasbahs along the way, they still make the route more epic.

The road N13 it is the one that crosses Morocco from north to south, through the center of the country, and we notice how the circulation (both cars and trucks, as tourist buses) is higher than on the other roads we did in the previous days. But there is no hurry and asphalt conditions are not bad.

If we have to cross the country, we will also have to cross its most famous mountain range: the Atlas. We do it for the mountain pass Tizi n'Taghaumt, 1907 meters high, and finally the car thermometer indicates pleasant temperatures at this time! We take advantage of the passage through the modern town of Midelt to eat (we are a tad saturated with tagine and couscous, so all pizza, do not judge us that we have been in Morocco for two weeks).

We finish is the first part of the route between Merzouga and Meknes in Azrou, a small city in the Middle Atlas with a main attraction: the cedar forest and the free monkeys (the macaque species of barbary or monkey of Gibraltar, a bastard not nice). On the same road before reaching Azrou you will start to see signs warning you that you may find monkeys grinding in the middle of the lane. And so it is ...

Azrou is surrounded by an extensive cedar forest, where you can go hiking. There are several local operators that offer them and if you have time and desire, we are sure that it is a beautiful experience. If you only have one morning, like us, we recommend focusing on visiting the Cedar Gouraud, the oldest in the area, with over a thousand years! To get there it is better to take the direct road from the city, we wanted to make a loop starting at the point where the wild monkeys are on the road, but we found a path ONLY passable in 4 × 4 (we passed, but we shit alive ). We point you the bad road on the map below. In addition to the cedar, there will be a few more monkeys and places to organize meals.

We also read that Azrou has a medina quite interesting, obviously not at the level of Fez or Meknes, but where missing a little while will be a very local experience.

Our plan was to sleep in Azrou and make the visits the next day, after which we headed towards Ifrane, the "Switzerland of Morocco". If Azrou is a Berber city with enough history, Ifrane was built by the French in 1928 to create a winter vacation spot. It stands at about 1,700 meters high, so it snows a lot here in winter, making it one of the most popular skiing destinations in Morocco. What attracts attention when crossing its pristine streets are its little houses, to the purest European style. We go from adobe buildings to houses with gable roofs and little gardens. We just get to your main attraction, the statue of the lion of Ifrane (a little ugly, why deny it), and walk for a while.

This statue has a curious history, we do not know if real. It is said that it was carved in World War II by a German prisoner to gain freedom. And why the lion? This entire area was once inhabited by lions, so it is a way to remember the past.

From here we head to Meknes. We will also visit Volubilis and Mulay Idris on this same day, but we will tell you those separately.

Here we leave you the map of the route between Merzouga and Meknes (through the Ziz Valley), with the most important points. Were 393 km between Merzouga and Azrou, plus 162 km between Azrou and Meknes, making visits to Ifrane, Volubilis and Mulay Idris.

This was our route by car from the Erg Chebbi desert in Merzouga, to Meknes. We toured the Ziz River Valley and made visits to the cities of Azrou and Ifrane. Have you done this same itinerary? Are we missing something to recommend?