Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Day Four; Iabessene To Oukaimeden
I was worrying about the descents, but it was actually quite gentle. We could see villages farther up the valley, clinging to the hillsides, then we passed over a smaller ridge towards the head of a valley.
Looking Back On Our Route
We descended through some small juniper trees, bypassing the village of Agounss, which Ali informed us meant 'head of the valley'. There was the usual tall minaret tower, and as we drank water we heard the call to prayer echoeing across the valley.
There were a couple of small boys herding little black and white goats, with their dog. Funnily enough, we didn't see many dogs throughout the villages.
After a break, we had another long, slow, zigzagging climb up to the pass of Tizi n' Ouatter. It was quite a climb, but more gentle than I expected. The retrospective views were amazing, so I kept stopping to take photos and catching up again! We had several rest stops, and spend a few minutes trying to photograph a little black lizard on a rock.
We had a surprise at the top of the pass. We could see the village of Oukaimeden far in the valley below- out night's stop- but it was suddenly very cloudy. One side of the pass- the way we'd come- reamined perfectly clear and sunny. But the other side- where we were going- was quite cloudy. The cloud crept along the ridge, but could not seem to pass over to the other side. Weird!
Ascending Tizi n' Ouatter
Labels: Iabessene, Morocco, Oukaimeden, trekking