Oukainmeden

After the best part of two months trekking through the desert, we headed back to Marrakech for some R &R (repair and restocking). It only took a couple of days before we were bored of sitting around at which point we started thinking that a ski trip would make a nice change. Oukainmeden, Morocco’s ski resort nestles in the High Atlas at 2,00m just a couple of hours drive south from Marrakech.

The road out took us past numerous camel camps. Tourists are herded out from the hotels of Marrakech by minibus, sold a ride on a camel and then taken to the souvenir shop. Further along the road starts to climb quite steeply and we passed numerous little clay ovens by the roadside. The locals cook really nice flat breads. We bought one, still warm and ate it for lunch.

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First thing on arrival at Oukainmeden was buying a parking ticket. Before we could even get into the village, we were stopped at a barrier and sold a ticket. Then we could drive a couple of kilometres past the village to the end of the road where the ski lifts are. There is one chair lift and a handful of drag lifts. Sadly, there was not really very much snow so none of them were running. A man with a donkey assured me that there was very good skiing higher up. He also offered to take me and my skis up there on the donkey. I declined. There were a few patches of snow left over from several weeks ago. This would not only make for bad skiing but possibly wreck my skis on stones as well. Hiking boots on, we set off up the valley.

The valley is a national park and closed to traffic. We saw a couple of goat herders and two tourists, with their skis, being brought down on donkeys. I asked if they had found any snow. A little bit apparently. They were obviously far from enthused by it and looked as dejected as their donkeys. Higher up we crossed some patches of snow and the wind became biting cold. This all made a refreshing change from the desert, as did the mountain scenery. Cent enjoyed chasing some snowballs.

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Next day we headed back down and managed to find a different road. This started off being quite interesting. Then it got thinner and steeper and quite exciting. Then it led us through a village where we started to feel a bit big. First, we had to manually hold up an electricity cable to get under it. We have a special extendable pole for this. Next, we had to squeeze between two buildings leaving the best part of a centimetre on each side. The walls were mud and straw so I was worried that if we did lean on one that the whole thing might collapse. Round the next corner, we emerged onto the main road. I was quite happy about this.