Thursday 9 February 2017

Tafraout to Tata - 115 miles

Not so cold last night and up a little earlier because we're moving on today. So breakfast, finish packing up, say our goodbyes and on our way before 11.00. We set TomTom but we've done this trip several times before, both ways, so out through a very much quieter Tafraout and onto the R104 then R106, climbing to over 5000 ft out of the ring of mountains surrounding the town.

We have chosen to route the slightly longer way through Igherm altrhough we are aware there is supposed to be a new, shorter road. This is because we want to travel the scenic route again. For the first leg the roads are quite good although mainly single track with hardened verges for passing, not that there's a lot of traffic. Generally a mountain road, with a finale of VERY tight hairpin bends just short of Igherm.

There is a large open square in the centre of town so we stopped for lunch. However it seems to be school half-term and we were pestered with kids, fascinated by Jamie who just sat and barked at them. Eventually we shooed them away and finished our lunch in peace. Then taking the, unsignposted, P1085 out of Igherm we found the road had been much improved since last year, being metalled two lane all the way to Tata. Admittedly there were still a few stretches awaiting repair but a lot of the time the road follows the Oud (river) Tata and obviously suffers in the rains. No matter, slow right down and pick our way through, we're in no rush and there was so little other traffic it came as a surprise when the occasional truck or taxi suddenly appeared round a bend.

But the scenery, enhanced of course by the brilliant sunshine, was the reason for taking this route. Here are a few pictures but they really do not do the place justice.

All too soon we arrived at our destination, Tata, which is a military town, relatively modern with a couple of (full) campsites and a guardian parking area outside the municipal swimming pools – which were closed and no water in them. As usual a number of French motorhomes were taking up far too much room, but the guardian squeezed us in and we settled down. Thinking we were very low on water having not been able to refill at Tafraout, we were surprised when we found the tank still half full – shows we can be sparing if we try!

And finally, a brilliant sunset again.