TIZI N'TICHKA NECK

This pass, the highest in Morocco, culminates at 2,260 m and offers a splendid panorama of the crests of the Tistouit and Bou Ouriou djebel. Despite the cool winds blowing on these slopes of the High Atlas, vast steppe-like meadows provide excellent summer pastures for the herds. The transhumance starts every year in the spring. The shepherds from the villages on the other side of the valley, at an altitude of 2,000 m, go to the stone huts dug into the slopes of the Tichka River to spend the warm season there. The summit of Tizi n'Tichka marks the separation between the provinces of Marrakech and Ouarzazate. You can continue straight ahead, in the direction of Ouarzazate, to discover the adobe ksour surrounded by ramparts and equipped with a kasbah, notably Irhem n'Ourgal and Agouim, then into the valley of the Asif Imini, with its shepherd villages, starting points for the transhumance of the Tichka. To reach Télouet, you have to take the narrow road that goes to the left and winds through the valley below. Make sure you have enough fuel to cover the 20 km (plus the return trip) that separate you from the pasha's city before you set off on this dusty road. The track zigzags through dense pastures, populated by small douars built on the banks of the Imarene wadi. We enter the heart of the Glaoua country, of which Télouet was the undisputed capital throughout the 19th century. The vegetation is very fat along the wadi and almost desert on the surrounding hills.