Toudra Gorge

Wed 7/2/24

Today we would be heading from Merzouga desert to Tinghir, near Toudra Gorge about 200km away.  We made our first stop at Boulangerie Nahda at Alnif and bought a "fish sandwich" (it looks and tastes like a mamak roti sardin ) and a bread which cost only 10 MAD for takeway to eat in the car.

leaving the desert

fish sandwich

About 1 hour driving from our first stop, we were stopped by the gendarmerie at somewhere in Taghzoute N Ait Atta. I first thought it was just for random check, however we were actually being fined 150 MAD for not stopping at the "Stop" sign (which is in Arabic). When we reviewed our dashcam, we did stop, but we stopped a little further than the Stop sign. We tried pleading with the gendarmerie as we were not aware of the local regulations (the sign was in Arabic after all), but we did not succeed. We paid the fine by cash and were given the summons paper. We filled our tank with diesel after that for 300 MAD by cash.

the place where we were summonned

filled our tank

We then proceeded our drive to Toudra Gorge, but not long after, less than 1 hour from where we were frist fined, another gendarmerie stopped us. Apparently the gendarmerie have put a makeshift "Stop" sign by the road, where of course we stopped. However, the gendarmerie said we did not stop at the correct location and wanted to fine us 500 MAD which was ridiculous! The fine was then reduced to MAD 100, which we still felt was ridiculous. We felt the gendarmerie were intentionally targeting for tourists to milk money. There was no summons paper issued. We felt really angry with this incident. Definitely no traffic offense committed there. A total of 250 MAD was wasted away today to the gendarmerie. During our last visit in 2014, we had a taxi scam and tannery scam in Marrakech.

view of Toudra valley before we were stopped by the second gendarmerie

We drove to Toudra gorge not too far from the gendarmerie temporary post, and parked our car at a designated car park which was free. We walked through the Toudra gorge where the Todra river flowed. Toudra gorge is also a place for rock climbing activities. 

Toudra gorge

Toudra gorge

Toudra river

Toudra gorge

Our accommodation Riad Sephora is located not far from Toudra gorge booked through booking.com which cost EUR 28.73 (RM 152) per night with breakfast. Additional city tax which cost MAD 20 (1 EUR per person per night) was paid by cash to the riad. We were served mint tea and traditional biscuits at the roof top upon check in.

Riad Sephora

Riad Sephora rooftop terrace

The riad is located at a vantage location with beautiful views of the Toudra valley, river and almond blossoms. At first we planned to have lunch at any restaurants nearby the riad after check in, but apparently the restaurants were closed. So we agreed to have dinner of beef tagine and kofte tagine with orange fruits at our riad which cost 210 MAD for 2 persons (additional 20 MAD for a hrira soup for 1 pax). 

view of Toudra valley from our room

view of Toudra valley from the riad

view of Toudra valley from the riad

We ventured down to the valley through the garden and river and took some photographs of the almond blossom.

Toudra river

Toudra valley

almond blossom

almond blossom

Toudra river down at the valley

garden in the valley

kofte tagine, bread and orange

beef tagine

There is no heater in the room, but there is air conditioning, so we used this to heat up the room. We did have hot shower though.

The next morning we were served the usual Morrocan breakfast of bread, eggs, honey, olives, pancake, yogurt, mint tea and coffee. We left Riad Sephora after breakfast towards the High Atlas at Ait Tamelil which would take a while as the road conditions is not good, however we would be rewarded with stunning views. We chose the route as we did not want to repeat the same route back to Marrakech to go back to Casablanca where we would eventually fly out.

breakfast