Café Dar Issouga TREKKING
( 0670 10 65 21) On the north side of the pass, you’ll spot a reserve for mouflons,
endangered long-horned Barbary sheep. As you approach the pass, you may suddenly break
through fog into clear blue sky, and catch breathtaking airplane-window views over cloudbanks.
On the south side of the pass, the van ominously embedded into the hillside is your cue for a pit
stop at this cafe. The balcony offers stunning valley views of green terraces and cypress
forests cascading down the hillside – a prime spot for a Berber beef or goat tajine (Dh70 to
Dh90). Afterwards, owner Larbi can organise half- to three-hour walks or donkey rides down
the valley for tea in a mountainside village.
COOPERATIVE TIGMI
With a needle and thread, 30 women mâalems (master artisans) are setting trends from Morocco to Milan and improving
prospects for their rural community at Co- operative Tigmi ( 0524 48 08 19; http://cooperative-tigmi.spaces.live.com;
km37 Rte de Ouarzazate, No. 110, Lotissement Tafoukt Hay el-Massira, Aït Ourir; 2.30-5.30pm Mon-Fri) , 35km from
Marrakesh. Tigmi’s distinctive (and much-imitated) designs are simple and striking: asterisks, Berber talismans, and
architectural outlines embroidered on heavyweight cotton in rich, contrasting colours.
Proceeds from sales at Tigmi support literacy programs and maternal-child health programs, and visitors are spoiled for
choice at the cooperative workshop (signed 250m to the right off the main road, before Aït Ourir’s mosque). Periwinkle
starbursts grace chocolate-brown pillowcases, and kasbah motifs are embroidered in saffron on aubergine table runners. But
what’s that tangerine pouch with the powder-blue Berber power symbol?
‘It’s like a tea cosy, only for mobile phones or iPods,’ explains a hip young Cooperative Tigmi member. The cooperative has
secured backing from Oxfam and Spanish NGOs to diversify, producing phone covers, hand-painted glassware, and
embroidered duvet covers. These bed linens are a comfort in more ways than one: they introduce a style the women here call
‘Berber Zen’ into any home, and furnish this enterprising rural community with an ever brighter outlook.To Tizi n’Tichka
Higher than Tizi n’Test to the west but an easier drive, the Tizi n’Tichka connects Marrakesh with
pre-Saharan oases. In winter, check with the Gendarmerie of the Col du Tichka ( 0524 89
06 15) whether the pass is open; in 2005, several tourists stranded on the pass died in their
car.
On your way to the pass, there are a couple of worthy detours: Aït Ourir and the Zat Valley. If you have a date with the desert, you can make it over Tizi n’Tichka from Marrakesh within
three hours. As you pass Aït Ourir, the road ascends and takes a turn for the scenic amid oak
trees, walnut groves and oleander bushes. Past the village of Taddert , the road gets steeper
and the landscape is stripped of colour, except for hardy wildflowers and kids along the road
selling geodes dyed shocking red.
Atop the Tizi n’Tichka, reward yourself with bracing espresso, cool air and dizzying views at
the Assanfou cafe ( 061 132130; 9am-7pm) . Once over the pass, you gradually
descend into the lunar landscape of the Anti Atlas and the desert beyond. But if you speed
along the highway to Ouarzazate, you’ll miss some of the most fascinating destinations in
Morocco: the splendid, near-ruined Glaoui Kasbah in Telouet , and ancient mudbrick douar