Wandergliding: Driving to Tafraoute

December 30^th, 2025

The first part of the drive inland from Agadir was across a flat, sparsely populated area but then the road began to curve its way up some small hills towards the Anti-Atlas Mountains.

The road had next to no traffic.

A view of the Atlas Mountains to the north.

The tallest peak of the range (not seen here) is Toubkal, which is 4167 meters or 13,671 feet tall.

There were a lot of these cactus plants in this area.

Who doesn't love "Goats in Trees"?!?

So cute. I should have gotten closer as there are at least four goats in these two trees.

I found myself stopping more and more frequently to snap some photos of the interesting terrain and lovely scenery.

There are three ridges here, the last one being some decent sized mountains.

The Anti-Atlas Mountains.

This is the previous photo zoomed in. Can you see those houses way up the hillside?

I should have zoomed in, but the structure on the left at the top of the hill looks like someones unfinished dream home.

The photo doesn't do this justice...

This was some kind of hill fort. Off to the right are the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Whoever built it, picked a perfect knoll for it.

It was a perfect spot to stop for lunch.

Octi enjoyed the break too.

Another angle of the fortress.

Now there's a hotel and a cafe operating up there.

Getting a bit deeper into the mountains.

Some interesting geology here. There's remnants of an old lava flow from left to right between the terraces.

When I was about 45 minutes from arriving in Tafraoute, I spotted a paraglider flying above a rocky peak. That wasn’t too surprising as I knew that there were a few paragliding sites in the area. I pulled over where the road hit a mountain pass with some large antenna towers standing off to one side of the road. I noticed a few cyclists working their way up the mountain road to the pass.

You can't see it in this pic, but I spotted a paraglider above that peak.

This is at the top of the pass, in that is to the right of the peak in the previous photo. I would later find out that Tafraoute is behind the mountain in the distance.

Again, you can't see the paraglider in the photo, but also check out the two cyclists making their was up the mountain...crazy people!

Checking on my phone, I found a website with a good description of how to get to the launch for the nearby flying site called Col des Mines (Mine Pass). I backtracked and just as I was driving passed the peak above which I saw a pilot flying, another paraglider took off.

How gorgeous...even though it's so barren.

There are two paragliders in the sky now, just above the darker peak in the middle of the photo.

I backtracked and there was a single car in a small gravel parking area with a woman getting into the vehicle. I should have stopped and chatted with her as likely she was with the pilots, but I continued back to the main road. Then I noticed one of the pilots coming in to land a ways behind the peak so I stopped to watched. The other pilot landed too, just as the car passed me and turned to head to the mountain pass. Uh oh, I bet the lady who was the driver for the pilots didn’t see them land and was headed down to the valley thinking that they would land there.

Now you can see him! This is behind the mountain that they launched from.

Landing in the rocks.

The whole time we were talking, he was struggling with untangling his lines. Eventually, I couldn’t help but offer to show him a trick to get his lines straight and he retorted “I have over 2000 flights, I know what I’m doing.” Okay then. Their car returned and the lady got out and was quite friendly. The man was still struggling so I offered again, and he resigned and gave me the riser. Within 10 seconds I’d sorted out his tangles and handed it back to him. Did I get a “danke”? No. Oh well.

A few minutes later, the other pilot reached the road. She had packed up her gear where she had landed. The man mentioned that she knew better about what hoops needed to be jumped through for flying in Morocco, so she graciously took my email address and was going to send me information, but I never did receive anything. I wished them an enjoyable holiday and headed on my way.

Heading down into the valley.

The sun was getting lower in the sky, illuminating the mountains in lovely golden light.

The boulevard into the small town of Tafraoute was lined with palm trees and lovely lampposts. I decided to drive around the town a little bit before heading to one of the two campsites I had picked on my app. As I left the town centre, a local man in his late 50s in traditional local garb and riding a small motorbike waved at me to pull over. I played stupid and waved at him and continued on. Well, he kept following me. I made a few turns and he still tailed me. I needed to stop and put one of the campgrounds into my phone for directions, so I pulled over. He got off his bike and came up to my window. I rolled it down and said hello in French. After a few niceties, he pulled out a business card and asked if I was interested in seeing his business. I politely declined but he kept insisting. I told him I just wanted to go find my camp spot and not surprisingly, he also had a place that I could stay. I didn’t want to stay in town, and it had been a long afternoon of driving. Thankfully he finally got it, and we went our separate ways. The joys of travelling…

Before reaching the first campsite, just outside of town I saw an open spot of hard packed sand or mud with numerous motorhomes and campervans spread out over the area. I pulled in and parked by a little tree. Checking my app, I saw that it was a legit spot that you could camp at, it just didn’t have facilities like a shower or toilet. That was fine with me, as it was a gorgeous spot.

My camp spot near Tafraoute...and it only cost 15 dirhams ($2 CAD) to stay there.