Situated in the heart of the Anti-Atlas Mountain range, the Ait Mansour Gorge is one of the highlights of this beautiful region. The gorge cuts a beautiful swathe of bright cultivation through bare mountains and is one of the finest oases in Morocco. Some 20km from Tafraoute, the region's main town, Ait Mansour forms part of an excellent circular route (from Tafraoute) that can be undertaken in a day, either by car or by mountain bike. The intermittent tarmac/dirt road can be negotiated in most vehicles and the gorge has a handful of simple restaurants and cafes nestled into the palm oasis. It is just one highlight of a very underrated part of Morocco. Tafraoute itself has an incredible location, situated within striking distance of a dramatic range of granite mountains, of which Jebel Kest is the highest peak. Although the town itself is a fairly scrappy affair with little in the way of quality accommodation, the views from and around the town are staggering. Tafraoute sits in a small palm oases but is noted especially for the amazing boulders that surround the town. For this reason it is regarded as one of the world's best locations for bouldering (a form of rock climbing). Climbers often camp out at the so-called "Blue Rocks" ("Les Roches Bleues"), gigantic rocks painted by a Belgian artist as an expression of 'landscape art'. It's a surreal place and given the surrounding terrain, an ideal place for climbers. Tafraoute is also an excellent base for cycling, whether road biking or mountain biking. There are number of biking trails (dirt roads and singletracks) and a recent resurfacing programme has brought some excellent tarmac roads to the region. The roads up from the Souss plains around Taroudant represent great cycling terrain - extremely hilly - as do a number of different routes that head westward from Tafraoute towards Agadir and the coast. Trekking is also popular in the region with hikes in the granite massif to the north of town and walks through the picturesque villages o the Ameln Valley a real highlight. Amongst Moroccans Tafraoute is particularly famous for two reasons. The first is almonds, and more specifically, the February almond blossom festival where people from all around descend on Tafraoute to herald the arrival of blossom on trees in the extensive orchards around the town. The second reason is that people from Tafraoute are famed throughout Morocco for owning corner-shops in the big cities. This explains the fact that many of the surrounding villages are like ghost towns, with men folk working in the cities, leaving a largely female population behind to look after the family home. |
