Cascades D'Ouzoud, Refreshingly Beautiful

Jeff and I traveled to numerous towns, cities and medinas in Morocco on our first two visits, so when we arrived in Marrakech to live, there were not many new places high on our list visit. However, one destination kept standing out to me on our little Lonely Planet guide map, Cascades D'Ouzoud (ouzoud is Berber for olive, of which many trees surround the falls). The Cascades are only two and a half hours from Marrakech, so just a day trip. When we planned to go, other things kept popping up and different opportunities arose. However, when driving back in our little burnt orange Kia hire car from a Safi-Ouladia-El Jadida-Casablanca road trip, it was time to give the cascades a go.

 

We were not disappointed and wondered what had taken us so long in the first place to get there!

The cascades are in Azilal in the Atlas mountains. The waterfalls a 110m high and are stunning, refreshing and untainted.

You begin at the top of the falls, where you will come across Berber guides offering you a 1-2 hour hike around and to the bottom of the falls. We decided to come back another time to do the hike properly.

Descending the concrete steps, you will walk past many shops, restaurants, and if you are lucky enough, some Barbary monkeys!

With the warm temperature, it is important to cool off. If you don't want to totally immerse yourself and go for a quick or leisurely dip, you can always pay a mild 10 dirhams per person to board a raft and be paddled into the falls.

Highly recommended.

It had been organised for weeks, my fist visitor to Marrakech! All day at work I kept telling my students, “My friend arrives today! I wonder what she is doing? I hope she doesn’t get lost!” When I got off the bus in the afternoon, I walked towards our meeting place. Jodi was there. It was great seeing her again, and after her months of travelling on a around the world ticket, she was also happy to see me.


“We had the best day. We bought carpets!”

“You did what?”

The girls had walked out of my building and turned left. When doing so, there is always the chance that you will run into, quite literally, a jolly, overzealous Moroccan named Abdul. Abdul owns a shop wheeling and dealing in eclectic Berber wares. It is impossible to walk past the shop and not be pulled in. He has given me silver bangles, a Berber necklace, and offered me many other things which I decline for fear of obligation… However, on this occasion the girls weren’t experienced enough to know it is better to walk on the other side of the street. Their inexperience did pay off, however. Abdul was kind enough to offer them a driver for the day to take them to the souqs, camel riding, and to general touristic hotspots. After, the girls were then lured into Abdul’s store, promised a glimpse at the much talked about photos of Abdul with Bill Clinton, Tom Hanks and other celebrities. And before they could say ‘mint tea’, the girls were the proud owners of authentic Moroccan carpets, wrapped in brown paper and ready to be posted back to Australia.

We visited the Ourika valley and had tea at a traditional Berber house.

Jodi and a huge hay stack.

Jodi and myself at enjoying one of the waterfalls in Setti Fatima.

Jodi and Nat with Andy - a tour operator, and friend, working in Marrakech.