Just about an hours drive from Ouzoud is a large reservoir lake at Bin El Ouidane. It is barely populated but has some tourist facilities for boating including a spectacular Hotel du Lac and some very expensive spa suites. There are also budget options. There are moorings and floating jetties for speedboats and other watersports. We arrived mid-week in May and the Hotel seemed deserted. We were given lunch in splendid isolation with the terrace to ourselves, with wonderful views across the Lake and overlooking the gardens. We had perfectly cooked fish and I felt a million dollars. The whole experience was redolent of what I imagine India to be like, quite sumptious.
The highest waterfalls in Morocco are a 2 hour drive from Marrakesh into the Middle Atlas. There was a good amount of water in them when we visited and they were quite spectacular. They are well developed for tourists but there are an awful lot of steps. I only went to the access level but Beloved went all the way to the bottom.
By the side of the steps there are souvenir stall at the top and then as you go lower restaurants and shaded areas for hire take over. We went in the week but I'm sure at weekends in the summer it would be packed with people from the city in large family groups bearing picnics. There were quite a lot of people there mid-week and I would have said it was busy except that a good proportion of the stalls hadn't bothered to open so compared to peak times it must have been deserted.
When you get all the way to the bottom there are boat rides and you can wander further down the river valley. It must be a tremendous job to get the food and gas cylinders into the restaurants , the donkeys that do it seem to be able to negotiate the steps.
We did not see any Barbary Apes but there are signs in several languages beseeching you not to feed them so maybe we were unlucky.
The Hotel Chamonix is a time warp to the 50s/60s. We had a massive room overlooking the fountains but it hadn't been touched for decades. The Hotel lobby in particular is presided over by pictures of the old king and the only sign of the present King is one of theflanking pictures of him and his brother seemingly as teenagers. The hotel uses the lobby to show off it's collection of 1960s machines (and earlier). There is an arcade hockey game, old telephone system, a till and Beloved's absolute favourite 1940s radio transmitter.
One of the nicest features of Ifrane are the fountains in its central square. Strangely they play all week when there are few people about save fro the rich residents but are turned off at 5.00pm Friday only to restart at 9.30 Monday morning. So at the weekend when all the trippers come to have their photos taken in front of the lion ,the fountains behind are still.
On a summer weekend the town is transformed. The charm of the town is the cedar forest setting and the river running through it. Hordes of upwardly mobile citydwellers come out from Casa, Rabat and Fes and picnic by the river and then promenade in the evening. Most come by car in extwnded family groups but some come by charabanc. It's like Herefordshire with mass tourism.
Ifrane is the weirdest place in all Morocco, partly because it looks as though it's on a different continent. It is set in the centre of the cedar forest and is very upmarket. It is the home of a private university, the most prestigous in Morocco, and thus is home to the youth of the nation's elite. In the winter it is also a fashionable ski resort and the King has a home there but more importantly it is a winter weekend hub for courtiers out from Rabat.
With their steeply pitched roofs against the snow the buildings look very un-moroccan. The guidebooks describe them as resembling Swiss chalets. The most striking aspect of the town is its cleanliness and complete lack of litter. Neither are there any market stalls,donkeys, street vendors, porters, beggers or other poor people hanging round. There are parking attendants and street cleaners in uniform but you get the feeling they don't live there and are just brought in to work.There are hotels (including out of centre an amazingly expensive Spa ), restaurants , souvenir shops and some small "mini" supermarkets. The buildings are not higgledy-piggley but built to an overall design and style by the old King's favourite archetect. The symbol of the town is the oversized lion apparently carved by an italian POW which is guarded during the day by armed soldiers.
The overall impression is like something out of the Trueman show and really it more truly resembles an american gated community than switzerland, and when I go to the pizzeria they proudly tell me that they sell not italian food but New York food. The upshot being that the pizzas are rubbish but the burgers are wonderful.
