Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
east and Tikniouine and Agouti to the southwest. Tabant, with its weekly
Sunday souq
,
school and official mountain-guide training centre, is the heart of the valley and the main
transport hub.
Sights & Activities
Although there are plenty of mountainous hikes in the region - with summit-baggers
heading straight for
Irhil M'Goun
(4068m) - ambling between villages along the valley
floor is enormously rewarding. Along the way, drop in at some of the valley's 40 local as-
sociations and cooperatives and find out more about how these mountain communities are
evolving their own unique brand of sustainable tourism and providing much needed edu-
cation to future generations. One such example is the non-profit
école vivante
(
www.ecolevivante.com
)
, a free primary school that is part of a global educational youth pro-
ject.
At the very upper (northeastern) end of the valley at Ifrane a track heads east to Zaouiat
Oulmzi. From here you can trek down to the seasonal
Lac Izoughar
, a favoured watering
hole for the nomadic Aït Atta tribe.
Sidi Moussa
For a spectacular sunset, take the road west out of Tabant, and you'll find the trailhead
leading up to the Unesco-heritage
zawiya
of local
marabout
(saint) Sidi Moussa. It's a
straightforward 20-minute uphill hike (15 minutes downhill), and you won't need a guide.
The round structure served as a collective granary and has been restored through a com-
munity effort, with fitted-stone walls and weather-beaten wooden doors making a worthy
photo backdrop.
MONUMENT, VIEWPOINT
Cooperative
Tikniouine
( 0678 52 08 80; Tikniouine; 9am-4pm Mon-Thu & Sat)
Some 5km east along the main
road from Agouti is the village of Tikniouine, a key stop for gourmet treats and cultural
immersion. The cooperative was formed in 2005 by plucky young women who secured
EU funding to start cultivating organic walnuts, collecting mountain wildflower honey,
and making their own mild, aged cow's-milk cheese, which tastes like a cross between
gouda and emmental. At the cooperative's centre, which now employs 17 women full-
CULTURAL BUILDING
