Over the Atlas and into the Draa's river of palms

South of the High Atlas the landscape does something cinematic: the road drops through the Tizi n'Tichka pass and lands in the Draa Valley, where a green river of palms threads between bare mountains for a hundred kilometers, studded with crumbling mud-brick kasbahs.

I spent three days based near Agdz and Zagora with a local guide, walking palm-grove paths between villages, drinking mint tea in courtyard shade, and climbing the old kasbah at Tamnougalt at sunset — the valley below going gold while the muezzin's call rolled across the palms. I have chased travel moments for a decade. That one goes in the permanent collection.

Go with a guide, go in spring or late autumn, and build in a night at a kasbah guesthouse. The silence after dark is its own destination.