Jones

The lonely planet rather floridly describes the Ameln Valley as having “26 villages strung out like pearls along a straightish river bed, beneath a curtain of granite to the north”. We were up to see a few of them. Our planning app said 8km but we were aware that our last walk up the mountain had taken 3 hours for 5km and nearly fried Flynn to a crisp. So we set off early (well, 9am) up and with a lot more water.

I’m not sure about pearls but the villages are pretty. The walking was easy although finding the path – especially through the winding village “roads” was sometimes a challenge.

We’d packed a lunch but we were back well before midday so we ate our smoked trout sandwiches as we drove 5km around the mountain to Tafraout. Tafraout holds a lot of memories from our last trip. We had all three types of fun here. That year we stayed – and were stranded – at Trois Palmier camping. This year we’re just slightly further away from town on the unofficial aire which is a large flat area of rough sand. There are about 40 vans here. Everything from DIY dutch container-on-a-truck to huge Concorde busses. 

We bumped through a few ditches to the far side of the area which happily puts us looking towards Trois Palmier in the distance.

We sat around for a few hours and did some odd jobs. The weather is deceptive. In the sun and sheltered from the wind it’s too hot. Flynn has retreated under Jones for deeper shade. When you’re out of the sun and the wind picks up the real temperature (13C)  becomes apparent. As the sun got somewhere near the yard arm, I  took this photo to replicate an identical one from 2023.

We walked into town for bread and strawberries. Tafraout is still as picturesque as it used to be. Maybe a little too cleaned up. We passed a drainage ditch where we met a family of dogs with puppies but they’re not there now.

Jane cooked the last of our spanish pork and we drank (most of) a bottle of posh Moroccan wine.

As night fell, we took flynn our for a quick walk and we remembered why Tafraout is special. The light here is amazing. 

We have still not washed Jones or Flynn.