CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Kelaat Mgouna it runs 125 km to Kelaat Mgouna; allow about 2 h 32 of riding. The stops in between: Ait Oudinar, Dades hairpins, Msemrir and back through Dades hairpins. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
A canyon road from Boumalne Dades, Morocco to Msemrir, Morocco, via Ait Oudinar. Key character: red canyon; hairpins; kasbah villages. Surface: paved.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 22 km this is Dades Gorge Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The road to Boumalne Dadès runs through country that looks like another planet. The town sits at about fifteen hundred metres on the edge of the High Atlas, on the old route known as the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs, and from here the Dadès river cuts a gorge into red rock that is among the finest in Morocco. The settlement itself is small and dusty, a stop on the highway with a market, cafes and a handful of hotels, but it is the gateway to some serious riding.
Read the complete Boumalne Dades write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boumalne Dadès is where the day begins. Next is Ait Oudinar.
Ait Oudinar is the village where the Dades valley stops being a pleasant river road and starts to behave like a gorge. The Dades river, running down from the High Atlas, has cut through red and ochre rock here, leaving walls, towers and odd, weathered shapes, and the village sits among them with palms, fields of barley and a scatter of mud-brick houses in the bottom of the valley. The nearest towns are Tinghir to the east and Kelaat Mgouna, a market town of some fourteen thousand people, to the west, and fuel is available in both.
Read the complete Ait Oudinar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ait Oudinar comes up 17 km in. Next is Dades hairpins.
The Dades hairpins are Morocco's answer to a stack of pancakes: a series of tight switchbacks that climb the side of the gorge, with the road folding back on itself again and again as it gains height above the river. From the viewpoint at the top, the whole route lies below you like a ribbon dropped on rock, and the red-orange walls of the Dades Gorge fall away into the valley. Tinghir is the nearest large town, a short ride to the east, and it is the place to find fuel and a proper meal before heading up.
Read the complete Dades hairpins write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
34 km in you reach Dades hairpins. Next is Msemrir.
Msemrir, about halfway. Next is back through Dades hairpins.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dades hairpins write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dades hairpins sits at 67 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ait Oudinar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ait Oudinar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ait Oudinar comes up 84 km in. Next is Boumalne Dades.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Boumalne Dades write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boumalne Dadès closes the day.