Left, Chefchaouen; centre, Roches Ruiniformes; right, Taghia and Jebel Oujdad

Morocco is a wacky place! It's Africa's colourful and varied answer to Nepal and one of our favourite countries. Quick and easy to get to, in same time zone as UK and happily, not much hassle in the towns these days. Full of superb climbing and trekking areas. Click here for 2007 info on entry to Morocco from Spain.

Climbing and trekking areas we have been to are N to S:

Chefchaouen - had good reports from friends of Camping Azilan, but decided to stay in town. Parked up in compound below Market Area (20DH/day to Guardien).Spent first night at newly renovated Hotel Nisri. From Bab el Ain, turn left and go up until you see it to the right just before Bab Suk. 50DH/pers, hot shower inc. Nice old building around courtyard where (unfortunately) the TV was on full volume, but turned down a bit when we asked. Moved out next day and went to Hotel Bab el Ain for second night; 60DH/pers inc breakfast (promised for 8.00am but not ready until 8.45 and we wanted to have an early start). Not to worry! Supposed to have hot shower en-suite, but ours never came hot despite asking.
Beware the cafes in Place Outa el Hammam: We had lunch there on two days in different cafes. Both overcharged by about 20-30DH then made a scene when we pointed it out, saying, in one case, that the soup was ‘special’ (we hadn’t ordered ‘special’) and in the other that the extra was for the bread (cafes never charge for bread in Morocco). Such is the impact of tourism.

Climbing in Chefchouen very nice limestone climbing (some bolted routes) up to 60m just 10 mins walk from this old and equisite Moroccan Andalucian hillside village.See more photos.From Place Outa el Hammam, head up NE to exit at the Bab Onsar gate and take the path over the bridge towards the ruined Spanish Mosque. Not far along here there is a steep 30m cliff on the left with a few bolts in place. Just beyond, a steep gully goes up left with an attractive 100m ridge visible 100m up on its right. This provides a choice of three initial 25m pitches (about grade 4) beyond which there is no in-situ gear although we continued for another enjoyable rope length, slightly harder (maybe 5). We left a sling to abseil down to the fixed gear. Very pleasant and in the shade, useful if it’s a hot day.

Zegzel Gorges and The Grotte du Chameau Beautiful forested mountains with some nice semi-wild unattended campsites(spoilt a bit by litter) on the approach road from Taforalt. The Grotte du Chameau was closed and didn’t seem to have been opened for ages; the Guardien at the car park didn’t have a key. Crags in one or two of valleys could be worth a closer look.

Roches Ruiniformes - east of Ifrane. Limestone towers around 10m in height. Pleasant bouldering amongst pines on the edge of if you are in the area.
To get there we drove S from Sefrou on the R503, turning W after about 25k, signed Dayet and Ifrane. Continue N of a small lake on same road, then left, signed Ifrane, until the Roches Ruiniformes can be seen rising as weird towers between pines about 1k to the right. We reached them by a rough track and spent the night there having enjoyed some very pleasant ‘bouldering’ on the 10-15 metre high limestone towers; there are climbing problems of all grades and a stop here is a pleasant interlude for anyone on their way to the rock climber’s Mecca of Todra Gorge. The rocks were marked on our Geocenter Moroccan map, 1:800,000, E of Ifrane. Just 0.5k S of them, the road meets the R707 from Ifrane to Tizi-n-Tretten and Mischliffen; the rocks are visible N of this junction, which is about 5k SE of Ifrane. The route to Tizi-n-Tretten and Mischliffen is particularly scenic, through pine and cedar forests and with skiing possible though there was insufficient snow in early Feb 07.

Jebel Aroudane / Aioui & the Taghia Canyons - up into the mountains above Beni Mellal, north of Marrakech. Superb limestone mountains with lots of routes of VS (5) and above, and lengths from 300 - 700m. Well known to the French, we went in May 1979 with info from Bernard Domenech and it's likely that we were the only Brits to climb there until October 2005, when Twid Turner & friends visited the area. Lots of potential. Not accessible in winter due to snow covered roads. Some info in HIGH 265 Dec 2004. Other photos on this website.

Useful links to Moroccan Atlas mountain expert Hamish Brown and his recommended guide, Ali, are: Hamish Brown and Hamish and Ali

Another British company organising tours and treks.

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