A fine, easy walk to the high point of the glorious cedar forests of north-east Morocco.
The Middle Atlas sees far fewer mountain visitors than elsewhere, a reflection I’m sure of the lure of the big, whereas much of the area offers indescribably beautiful hills covered in cedar forest, the Cedrus atlanticum. Jbel Tazekka is isolated enough for cedars to have evolved here that are regarded as a subspecies. The area is a national park.
The Tazekka cedar forest
Meknes and Fes, two of Morocco’s imperial cities (the others are Rabat and Marrakech) lie not far away from the Tazekka rump of the Middle Atlas, and to the north, with a narrow gap between, lie the Rif Mountains. The Arab invasion came through the ‘Taza Gap’ in the seventh century, a unique chink in the mountains that form a battlement around Morocco. It was from Taza we began our end-to-end Atlas trek, which finished on the Atlantic coast at Tamri, and Jbel Tazekka was the first hill climbed on the trip. I’ve been back since. The end of March visit gave the best display of flowers – including gagea, romulea, miniature daffodils, pansies and ranunculus. Ground churned up is a sign of wild boar in the area.
Camp on the Dyat Chicker
The N6 major road (motorway to be built) – and railway – from Fes to Oujda (on the Algerian border) goes through the Taza Gap, and from it a loop road climbs southwards to the Tazekka heights, a fine 75km day’s motoring circuit if nothing else. There are worked cork oak forests lower down, pleasant falls and a vast cave complex which can be descended (all described in HB), but the pull for me was always Jbel Tazekka. On the last visit we were staying in rooms and tents at a farm near the Friouato cave and simply drove along the road circuit until below Tazekka. This road goes past the holiday camp of Bab bou Idir, descends to a dip (Bab Taka, 1450m, where the road to Rbat-el-Khayr heads south), then climbs again. The piste up Tazekka breaks off just 1km on from this junction.
An Atlas olive press
The piste is a forestry/mast-servicing track that wends up the hill, through mixed woodland with an unusual oak (where they are reintroducing red deer), and then leads across a grassy neck and up a final thrust of conical hill covered in magnificent cedars. Just picking footpaths up through these trees is a joy – a scented coolness. The trees go right to the top of Jbel Tazekka, but there are glimpses dizzily down to the Taza Gap, hazy mountains away to the north, and the snowy Iblane/Naceur heights to the south. The track to the summit is about 8km. The actual piste and what’s shown on 100 disagree; just keep to the piste as far as the cedars.
ROUTE TWO
Jbel bou Naceur 3326m, Moussa ou Salah 3172m and Jbel bou Iblane 3081m
| Commitment | As described this is a 5-day challenging mountain crossing needing real commitment. I’m sure Ali would be happy to organise a repeat. Iblane lies above a road from the N so is the easier peak – could be done in a day from Fes. |
| Maps | 100: Missour (only for El Hajj–Tirnest access), Berkine, Ribat al Khayr. |
| Texts | HB touches on Iblane; MP2 the main source. |
| Travel to start | Easy now for Iblane and the N side with tarmac roads up from Birtam Tam (N6) to Taffert or from Taza and Merhraoua to below the mountain. Hiring from Fes. Hiring from Midelt possible for Tirnest and Bou Naceur. Moussa ou Salah tackled from the Bled Tiserouine (c1990m) gives the easiest ascent (c1185m), either direct or by the Tizi n’ Tzirouch, to SW. Allow 3hrs. Bou Naceur, with 2000m of ascent from Tirnest, is best done in two days, ascending as described. |
| Local assistance | If making a trek, then mules and organising with a guide would be advisable. Simply ‘bagging’ the hills could be done using shared public transport, but timings would be open-ended. |
The dominant mountains of north-east Morocco are seldom visited, so offer greater rewards for relatively easy access.
In February 1990 two of us set off to ‘beat the bounds’ of Morocco, so to speak, travelling south by bus from Agadir to Bouizakarne, then east to Tata, Foum Zguid, Ouarzazate, Ar-Rachidia and Figuig, then north to Oujda and west to Taza and Fes. (Advice: take a cushion.) Particularly on the Oujda–Fes stretch, when we’d gone by train, we were aware of snowy sweeps of mountain many miles off to port. They were even visible from Fes rooftops. What could they be? Eventually we realised they were the long crests of Jbel bou Iblane and Jbel bou Naceur. Two years later (May 1992) we set off to find and climb them – ‘we’ were the GTAM trio of Charles, Ali and myself, plus another friend.
Jbel bou Iblane under deep snow
We travelled by Land Rover hired from Marrakech via Kasba Tadla to reach Midelt. We passed a forgotten hotel night, but had a memorable meal in a small restaurant, Fes, the sort of eatery one bends routes to take in (grilled quinces once). Next day it was down the bleak Oued Melwiya (Moulouya) road – the only big river heading for the Mediterranean – and, at Outat Oulad el Hajj, onto a piste towards the mountains. The piste ran out, and some cross-country sport was needed to reach the village of Tirnest. Peyron was our guide for this trip and indispensable. (Tirnest will certainly have a good piste by now.)
The north flank of Jbel bou Nacceur
Outsiders had rarely come to the village, and the headman was far too scared to help us without authorisation. To stop us he said there were no mules, so we simply packed our rucksacks and set off to backpack at 14.00. That horrified them. On our heads be it. We put in 5 hours of sweaty labour to round into the Taouchguelt (Tawchgelt) glen, whose head was Bou Naceur, leaving a mere Ben Nevis equivalent to climb next day. Water was scarce, but we followed a donkey for an hour to a source. A shepherd made tea for us, and we gave him surplus vegetables (from now on we fought every ounce of the way) before a night that produced a saturating dew.
The first brew went on at 05.00. On our second hour the slope reared up. We followed a gully next to the main one, which entailed some scrambling on rock rough as the Cuillin of Rum. There were bumps galore in the snowy waste once up, so there was something of a tour to be sure of the highest, given 3326m. There were great views over to Iblane, and Tinesmet village, our next objective, lay in a green spot among the greys and browns. We felt the altitude a bit and Ali had a touch of snow blindness. We then, perforce, had a high bivvy, melting snow for water.
Jbel bou Iblane beyond the village of Beni Smint
The school inspector met below the Tizi ou Mial
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