Ourika Valley Road

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Marrakech

   Marrakech announces itself with a smell before it shows its face: woodsmoke, orange blossom, leather, grilled meat, with mint and diesel in the mix. The city, founded in the later eleventh century by the Almoravids, grew from a camp of tents at the edge of the Haouz plain into the capital of a series of Berber dynasties. Its walls and many of its buildings are built of local red clay, giving it the nickname of the red city, and behind them sits the old medina, a maze of lanes where mopeds, donkey carts and tourists push through together. The Koutoubia mosque, whose minaret rises about seventy metres above the roofs and dates from the twelfth century, is the landmark you steer by.

   Read the complete Marrakech write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Marrakech sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Ourika.

2. 2. Ourika

   The Ourika Valley is where Marrakech goes to cool off. Less than an hour south of the city, the river of the same name runs down from the High Atlas through a narrow, green gorge, past terraces of barley, walnut trees and Berber villages whose red clay houses cling to the slopes. The valley is a favourite with day-trippers in summer, and the riverside cafés fill with families escaping the heat of the plain, with Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa, hidden somewhere behind the ridges.

   Read the complete Ourika write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ourika comes up 41 km in.

Recorded source links

Source