Explore The southern oases routes
Travelling through the Dadès in spring, you’ll find the fields around EL KELÂA M’GOUNA, 45km east of Skoura, laced with the bloom of thousands of small pink roses, cultivated into hedgerows dividing the plots. The roses – Rosa damascena, probably brought here from Persia by the Phoenicians – are harvested by local women, who start very early in the morning before the heat dries the bloom. Trucks ferry the petals to Kelâa’s two factories, where they’re distilled into the rose oil that forms the basis of all the moisturisers, hand creams and other rose-related products that you’ll see in the region’s shops. The size of the factories reflects the task at hand: there are an estimated 4200km of rose hedges around Kelâa, with each metre yielding around a kilogram of petals, and ten tonnes of petals are needed to produce just two or three litres of rose oil.
In late May (sometimes early June), a rose festival is held in the village to celebrate the new year’s crops – a good time to visit, with villagers coming down from the mountains for the market, music and dancing.
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Trekking in the Vallée des Roses
Trekking in the Vallée des Roses
Beyond Bou Thaghrar, the pistes degenerate or disappear altogether, making this prime trekking territory, which for the most part remains blissfully beyond the reach of most 4WDs. Depending on the amount of time you have, a typical route in the region could range from a day hike through the satellite villages of Bou Thaghrar to a ten-day trek north through the magnificent Gorges du M’Goun, a real adventure involving hours of wading waist-deep through meltwater. With three days to spare, the varied (and mostly dry) walk to Ameskar, via Alemdoun and Amejgag – the conventional approach route for mountaineers bound for M’Goun – would be an ideal sampler, passing through a series of pretty villages and some superb gorges.
