Chefchaouen - Akchour and stuff

When you travel alone, if you're doing it right, you're never actually alone unless you want to be.

I knew that just outside the city walls of Chefchaouen's medina there was a trail that led to an abandoned mosque on the mountainside. But walking alone in the woods didn't appeal to my sense of fun or of security. I'd seen a girl drinking coffee alone in a cafe in the town square, and figuring she was another solo traveller, decided to introduce myself and see if she'd be up for the hike to the mosque. And she was!

Myrthe was Dutch and had been travelling solo through Morocco for 6 weeks. She'd done and seen it all--the desert, all the major cities, and lots of smaller villages. As we had breakfast and hiked up through the medina gate and out of town, she answered my questions about a bunch of the seemingly baffling local customs.

The mosque was on a hill with a spectacular view of the blue and white of Chefchaouen's medina. As we wondered out loud as to how old the mosque was and why it was abandoned, Lamia, a Moroccan girl from Marrakech on vacation with her mother and uncle, stepped in to tell us the history of the building. [It was built by the French during their occupation of Morroco, but the locals didn't trust their colonialists' intentions in building them a house of worship, so no one would go, and so they were forced to board it up.]

We got to chatting with Lamia, and in a perfect example of Moroccan hospitality, invited us to come with them that afternoon to visit Akchour, a nature park 30km outside of Chefchaouen.

The plan was to drive to the entrance of the park, then hike up to the Pont de Dieu, a natural stone bridge connecting two mountains that's supposedly quite striking. The drive into the countryside surrounding Chefchaouen took us through the green hills of the Rif mountains, the road winding through small villages. More than once we came across kids who had to herd the family's goats or chickens off the road so the car could pass. Our soundtrack was a tape of Emirati Arabic pop music.

But about two kilometres before the park entrance the road abruptly ended. Heavy rains this past spring had brought on a mudslide that had destroyed 50 houses and cut off the road. The group of men lounging under trees with their dogs at the end of the road told us it was still possible to get to the park, but we'd have to do a few more kilometres on foot.

We set off, first climbing through the rubble of the landslide, walking on top of destroyed houses and ducking under downed powerlines. We then got onto a path with gorgeous views of the river valley below. But by the time we got to the park entrance, we only had time for a glass of mint tea from a stand just inside if we wanted to be able to complete the hike back before sundown. Le Pont de Dieu will have to wait for my next visit.