Howdy all. My final ‘Marrakesh’ blog is this one – telling the story of the day trip to Ouzoud Waterfalls and back from Marrakesh. For reference I did a photo blog last year and you can check it out HERE.

So when you arrive in the medina area of Marrakesh you sooner or later pass small shops offering a variety of different day trips from the city. Many head out to the nearby Atlas Mountains, and I’m not sure that Ouzoud is technically in them – in fact the journey to Ouzoud is longer than some trips to the Atlas Mountains, but either way it’s surrounded by some impressive scenery.

We asked a vendor what he thought was the best day trip to do, and he said it was the Ouzoud Waterfalls trip. We had made some friends on the first night who said they were doing that tour through Get My Guide, so we booked the same one through that app (well, webpage to be fair). If you thought there might be more than one company doing the same day trip, you thought right! In fact there were dozens!! So as it were, we booked through the same company but we ended up on a different tour, and looked for them all day but didn’t see them.

The pick up spot was five minutes walk from where we stayed, which was handy enough. We were then bussed around to pick up a couple of others although it was already pretty full when we got on. I think they were going to swap people over to a different bus at one point, again the communication on these tours is not always great so you don’t know exactly what is going on until you reach your destination. In this case, the little settlement of ‘Ouzoud’.

The mini-bus was okay, not the worst I’ve ever taken, but it was the worst thing about the tour in as much as it was a 3-hour drive BOTH WAYS! The countryside is attractive and interesting at least, it’s a nice drive and there is a rest stop each way too for a good twenty minutes. But I definitely fell asleep on the way there and the way back!

Once you arrive in Ouzoud, you find yourself in a complex of carparks near the top of the waterfall. Standard hiking is to go around and down on the right side of the waterfalls (facing away from the falls) and come back up the left side, which is an easier trail, if steeper overall.

We started looking over these amazing waterfalls, which interesting are fuelled from under the earth – just subterranean rivers feed the falls which is cool there is no gushing river to see at the top, although some water through canals does also funnel into the falls.

The earth is a rich red colour, and from here there are some good views too although you don’t see all of what lies at the bottom of the waterfalls. We had our first of many monkey encounters up at the top here as one in particular monkey seemed to be posing for the cameras. We went inland a bit more, there is a small community living around the falls, a little bit of agriculture, tourism and farming of the argan nut to make argan oil.

The argan nut is like a cross between the acorn and the walnut, and we came to a couple buildings where they were selling various argan oil products. There was a small demonstration of using old techniques to extract the oil from the nut and of course the chance to buy some products. Theres always something like this on a tour like this.

Then we walked a little and started the descent along a pretty poor thin path to the bottom of the falls. Some parts were okay, there were stops on the way too with shelters or vendors, or a little rest stop with a sort of café and the monkeys came right up to you. But at other times the path was narrow, or a little crumbling and you really did have to watch where you put your feet otherwise you might find yourself on your backside with a broken ankle.

It starts to flatten out and suddenly you realise you are walking towards the bottom of the falls, and can see the falls in the distance. Not the far distance though, and very soon we were there at the base of it where it turns into a river.

I think you can find a path across by foot, but we had paid for a boat ride which goes for around 15 minutes. Alternatively there is a cheaper boat that just takes you to the other side which has the restaurants and stuff. Our boat well, they were going for a ‘Maid of the Mist’ kinda of thing that you have at Niagara and also something similar at Iguazu Falls, however this wasn’t quite as impressive. Really the boats just jostle to get you close enough to the falls that you get a little sprayed. They don’t provide protective clothing so you really need to protect cameras etc. Also swimming is another suggested activity. The water looked and I believe was pretty cold, but some people took the opportunity to swim in this pool under the falls. It was April, and it was a warm day but it wasn’t Summer either – maybe the water is warmer there.

In all fairness they are impressive falls of 110 metres, and they are really really beautiful too. It’s definitely worth visiting, but be aware that the hike is a bit tricky and you want to be steady on your feet on the downhill climb.

There are I think a few restaurants there, although it could just be the one big restaurant/establishment. Mostly meat is the go, they are barbequing for everyone enmasse. We had a nice table on a balcony with superb views of the falls, and we were visited by a number of monkeys here too. The food was okay really, tasted pretty nice. Soft drinks etc available.

Then it was time to return to the car park. It’s not a long climb in terms of distance, but the first part through the stores with quite a few steps. Also it’s not the most shaded hike back up on that side so hats and sunscreen are a must! But the views back at the falls were magnificent, and soon back to the bus for 3 hours back to Marrakesh.

All in all it was beautiful and a great time, the real downside to the tour is simply this – it’s 6 hours of travel for 3-4 hours of tour, which isn’t a great ratio. And we were pretty hacked once back.

This was where in terms of ‘Dhaka to Dakar’, something happened. Graham hadn’t been the best all day, and we did end up in hospital. He ended up going home (and he’s fine by the way!) but he had to be cautious and put his health first, which he did and it’s the right decision. We’re not in our twenties any more!!

So it was that I would move on from Marrakesh by myself towards the second last-country on the itinerary – Mauritania. Two and a half full days of travel stared me in the face, but I also knew I was getting close, very close, to the end now!

Thanks for joining me today, stay tuned for that story and more, Take care wherever you are in the world –  May the Journey Never End!