We continued south on R304 through the town of Azlial which was a beautiful place with palm lined boulevards and high end shopping. Don’t know what the local economy involves but they are doing much better than the average Moroccan settlement.
Progress was speedy along the flat plateau that followed. At our espresso stop we encountered several tour buses – our first encounter with other tourists (who were kept in line by a pesky peacock)
We also passed a motorcycle tour group after we turned onto N9 and headed up the atlas mountains. Steve had remembered this road from 15 years prior and this road was the reason he wanted to do a bike trip in Morocco. It was amazing, freshly paved with beautifully engineered sweepers I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to the top. When we pulled over I was surprised that Steve was disappointed. The track he remembered was twisty and gnarly winding through small villages, whereas this stretch had blasted out new sections to allow greater speeds, which left sections of the old road like oxbow lakes as silent witnesses to a more rugged less gentrified N9 routing. As it was, the eastern slope is undergoing similar construction so the downward traverse still include those old sections. But in years to come it will be a memory – replaced by what would otherwise be an excellent motorcycle road rivalling any in the Alps.
View of the Atlas Mountains
The last stretch to Ait Benhaddou was less fun, with traffic, towns and the heat of the day weighing in. When we made our turn to the hotel we passed three camels along the side of the road. The desert beckons!
We spent the night at the Hotel Riad Ksar Ighnda which was located in an old village in a beautiful Ounila River Valley.
Hotel Riad Ksar Ighnda