TRAVERSE 12
meticulously crafted itinerary that combines 30 % off-road trails with 70 % winding asphalt roads, ensuring a balanced and exhilarating ride.
Riding into the mountains, the tiny Docker motorcycles are a challenge and a joy, their under powered engines similar to what the Moroccan people ride, it’ s an experience of a local and granular level, an adventure of a slower pace as we encounter dramatic landscapes punctuated by verdant forests and plantations that seem to defy the environment, deep gorges provide respite from the sun and a source of water vital to this part of the world.
The High Atlas Mountains route includes challenging mountain passes, river crossings, and visits to the stunning Ouzoud Falls, where Barbary apes play amidst the cascading waters. Each switchback offers views more breathtaking than the last: crimson earth dotted with juniper trees, villages that seem to grow from the rock itself, and shepherds guiding flocks across impossibly steep slopes.
These mountains are the ancestral home of the Amazigh, known more widely as the Berbers, an indigenous people who have lived here for millennia. They call themselves Imazighen,“ free people,” and nowhere is that freedom more evident than in the Atlas. Riding through this region isn’ t just travel; it’ s immersion in a living, breathing culture.
The Berber influence is evident in the architecture, language, and crafts.
TRAVERSE 12