House and Garden UK
By Pamela Goodman
Alan Keohane
In search of winter sun, Pamela Goodman indulges in the simple life at this rustic Moroccan kasbah.
Pamela Goodman
‘I’ve been walking these mountains all my life,’ says Mohammed as he leads me off the main track onto a narrow goat path, which twists and turns uphill through a tangle of heathery scrub, each false summit revealing another one beyond. In the far distance the snow-capped peaks of the High Atlas glint in the sun but I’m basking in 25°C – and it’s November. My walk with Mohammed is a five hour circuit, the first four of which we pass in solitude until we descend into a Berber village for lunch – chicken tagine cooked by the lady of the house – in a rustic Berber home. It’s an authentic experience and a far cry from the razzmatazz of Marrakech where a genuine sense of place sometimes seems buried deep beneath the tourist dollar.
Alan Keohane
The final leg of my walking circuit brings me back to where I began – the lovely Kasbah Bab Ourika, perched on an escarpment high above the Ourika river. It’s hard to imagine that the Kasbah hasn’t always been here, so seamlessly blended are the mud contours of its high walls with the surrounding dusky-red landscape. From the elevated position, the views are immense and impressive. My room, number 21, has a large terrace with private pool and a mesmerising panorama of riverside orchards and small hillside villages receding up the valley towards the high mountains. Adjacent to my room, and sharing the view, is perhaps the most spectacular vegetable garden I have encountered, its bountiful produce supplying the kitchen with a huge array of salad, herbs and vegetables.
The drive from Marrakech to Bab Ourika is an easy 50-minute one, the tarmac road finally giving way just beyond the bustling market town of Tnine Ourika to a dirt track which ambles through a village or two before hair-pinning precipitously up to the Kasbah. Rainy days can prove challenging.
The day I arrive though it’s warm enough to crave the shade. Fellow guests are lunching beneath a leafy pergola; others are lounging by the pool; some are draped on outside chairs beneath white canvas canopies, good books to hand. It’s a peaceful scene made all the more alluring by extensive gardens – a spiral of box hedging centred with a fountain, a grassy avenue of gnarled olive trees, beds of lavender and roses, jasmine and plumbago rioting across walls and trellises – where benches and daybeds have been located at strategic spots to capture that magnificent view.
At present, there are just under two dozen rooms (a couple more are planned soon), some in the main building, which is created in characteristic Moroccan-style round two inner open-air courtyards, some in separate guest annexes. They are rustic in design but at no expense to comfort – stone floors with Berber rugs, artisanal decorative accessories, simple colour palettes and tadelakt walls. Some, but not all, of the rooms have open fireplaces – odd you might think in North Africa but essential between October and April when, though the days can be warm, the evenings are distinctly chilly. On one of the days I was there, a torrential storm swept through the mountains. The hatches were battened down, the fires lit and a cosy afternoon of card games ensued.
This, in essence, is what Bab Ourika is all about. It’s not a glamorous, spick and span sort of place with faultless five-star affectations. Instead, the wifi at best is patchy and at worst non-existent, there are no TVs anywhere (mercifully) and service, though always charmingly delivered, can be a bit haphazard. The hotel, though created and owned by a British ex-pat, is almost entirely run by local Berbers and therein lies its appeal. This is a place for people who love the mountains, who love friendly rusticity, good books and good conversation over and above technology, simple but delicious food and views, of course, to make you weep.
For more details go www.kasbahbabourika.com. Rooms (depending on category) range from €150-€600 per night in standard season and €180-€660 in high season. Airport transfers can be arranged.
