Today's the day we decided to take the Tizi-n-Test Pass to Marrakech, along the R203.If you go on You Tube, there are a couple of really good videos,in English, which will give you a taste of our experience. So here we go on a bit of a white knuckle ride.The road sign is an obvious indication of what is to come. Not true, it was worse!!!
Well this road looks quite promising and we had been told to expect roadworks for a few kilometres, but that can only mean improvements.
But events began to change quite rapidly
.Ah, new walls, but we prefer them to be a little higher and stronger. The tarmac has been obliterated and we are left to skid on gravel, approaching a hairpin bend.
The colour in the exposed rock is very attractive. At this point I am still able to look up from the road and take in the view whilst Sue is being the happy snapper.
Somewhat higher now, but the barriers haven't caught up with the diggers this far up the hillside.....a word deliberately chosen as there is a need for superlatives later.
We are almost in the clouds and the road becomes an infinity track, as it appears to go nowhere after this bend!
Now we are really up a mountain without a parachute and back there is where we have come from.
Sue endeavours to keep the conversation light as my knees tremble and turn to jelly. Why does a person with height issues embark on such a drive. I wouldn't cross The Millau Bridge in France and froze on The London Eye! I digress. Just look what's coming around the next bend.
This leviathan took up most of the track.No
consideration for we pensioners in our little van, as he swept past in a dust cloud, which obliterated the view, the bend ahead and the road in front.
Now this seems better.The High Atlas surround us and clouds cascade down their slopes. The road is almost level, which is fine,
but if you stop to think about it ...... planes fly at this height!!
There are remote villages, squeezed between the folds of the barren hillsides, where water can be found at an oasis, but they can only be reached along donkey tracks.
We are now at 2000metres and the workmen use the scoop on their digger to clear a path for us.
Look at how close to the edge, the chap on the left is standing. No hard hat for him, just a big smile as he waves us on our way to the summit. The
10 kilometers of roadworks has become 40 and there is still along way to go.
Methinks we were told a bit of a porky or else these guys get through a lot of digging in a day.
We both breathed in as we negotiated this overhang, Can you see the face in the rock? There is a three meter height restriction at this point, but you are only told about it as you approach the cliff. No place to reverse but fortunately we are a mere 2.75m so we made it.
Sue continues to take pics which I will enjoy with a great deal of wine tonight but for now all I can do is cling to the steering wheel and stare at the tarmac ahead of me while she provides words of encouragement. She also adds that she is soooo pleased not to be driving.
There is so little spare, level ground here, that the carpark wasn't long enough to take the van. We had to plait our legs all the way down.
This is where the earth meets the sky and we are closer to our Maker than we have ever been.
We drove every inch of this picture, up, down, along, around and sometimes when the camber was really acute, the van tyres were like suckers, keeping us glued to the road.
The summit at last and time for lunch. We left Taroudant at 7-30am and it has taken four hours to drive sixty miles. The silence is deafening and it's a bit chilly, but we made it to the top of the Tizi-n-Test.We stand, together, insignificant specks on this majestic landscape. It was one of those "wow" moments.
There were still plenty of twists and turns on the way down and here is a selection of the sights that I was able to see without being affected by the influence of altitude.
Goats eating thorn bushes
A berber settlement
A kasbah destroyed in an earthquake
Who is he,where is he going and where has he come from? This is the middle of nowhere
A huge cleft in the rock,excavated by the French in the early nineteen twenties, who were the construction pioneers of this mountain pass.
A blue lake,which reflects the clear blue sky.
More hairpin bends and the amazing brilliance of the bouganvillia.
The suburbs of Marakech bring noise and chaos.
As we are here to tell the tale, then I guess we passed the Tizi-n-Test!!
From the north we drove through Tanger and south to Tetouan before joining the N16 along the zig zag coastal road of the Rif to Oued Laun.where we should have spent the night at the Municipal site. Unfortunately, due to the speed of construction, the site had been swallowed up by reinforced concrete and the foundations of a hotel. Despite the sounds of pile drivers,sheep still roamed the village streets! A car park guardian moved a barrier so that we could access a Tarmac area, where we slept alongside a French camper that had arrived earlier.
This cat, was a kitten when we were here last year, and now she has three kittens of her own. She is a good mum and they do well from the milk bar.
The yoghurt carton was enjoyed but this one always got it stuck on her head.
Feed me please. This kitty used to sit in our washing up bowl waiting for a treat.
Mum and puppy were rather special and looked after the van if we went for a walk.
"Can I come with you?" say those eyes.
And then there was the horse that ate an avocado!! Actually, he stole it from the table. He usually pulls the vegetable cart around the site but on this particular day he was roaming free.
