Morocco
Paradise Valley
The crowds stop at the first pools. The turquoise ones run thirty kilometres upstream.
Ten small pools the colour of bottle glass sit a few minutes' walk from where the cars stop, rimmed with boulders, each spilling into the next down a short cascade. Follow the river upstream and the water turns turquoise, a chain of almost-private pools threading the gorge. How much water is in them at all depends on what fell as rain the winter before.
The gorge is the work of the Asif Tamraght, cutting green through the Ida Outanane mountains an hour inland from Agadir. The valley gained its reputation in the 1960s, and the village story tells of a German couple who stopped by chance and of the wife, seriously ill, who is said to have recovered after the springs. Winter brings common sandpiper, green sandpiper and kingfisher to the water, while spring opens almond blossom along it. The road climbing out of the gorge is the Route du Miel, running through argan, almond and olive towards the beekeeping villages above.
Friends
Continue along the riverbed beyond the first pools and the company thins quickly. Established four-wheel-drive circuits reach the mountain pistes for a longer shared day, while the main approach through Aourir keeps the arrival straightforward.
Couple
Walk beyond the first pools with a trailhead guide and let the gorge, not a promised swim, set the pace. A gîte in the valley turns the evening into a quiet stay beside the rock and watercourse.
Family
The first pools are a few minutes' walk from the car, which is as far as anyone carrying a toddler needs to go. Add a honey cooperative on the drive down so the valley has a second story beyond the water.
- About ten pools sit a few minutes' walk from the car park, and a run of turquoise ones continues at least thirty kilometres up the river.
- The gorge is cut by the Asif Tamraght about an hour inland from Agadir, and the beekeeping road up to the Ida Outanane villages starts here.
- The valley's modern reputation grew from 1960s travellers and a village story of healing spring water.
- Sandpipers and a kingfisher work the river through the winter, and the almond trees along it flower in spring.
Thyme and lavender honey off the road that starts at these pools, taken from hives stacked inside towers of packed earth.
Amlou to dip bread in, almonds crushed into that honey with argan oil, the jar traditionally given to newlyweds.
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