Travel with Kevin and Ruth: Fun day at Ouzoud Falls and the monkeys

First full day with Lindsey and the grandkids, and boy we got the trip started with a bang. I think everybody had a fantastic day!

We had read that it's best to get to the falls early to avoid the tour bus crowds that come on day trips from Marrakech. We were aiming for a 9am start, but it was 9:30am before we got going.

We are staying at Auberge Zebra Camping, located on the outskirts of the town of Ouzoud. It's about 1.5 kms (a mile) one way to the top of the falls.

Heading down to the top of the falls.

Gotta stop to pet the puppies along the way.

As you enter the tourist area, there are "guides" at the top to greet you. They want to be hired of course, but we did a lot of research in advance, and it's not at all necessary. Besides, we really didn't want to be on any kind of schedule and just wanted to wander on our own. And, the falls are totally free unless you want to take advantage of tourist trinkets or restaurants along the way.

Our first view of the falls was actually looking down over the top.

Looking across to the big Borj des Cascades 5 star Hotel.

Sadie, Cameron, and Lindsey.

Sadie is 9 1/2, and Cameron will be 12 on April 1st.

This water has no idea what it's in for.

The top part of Ouzoud Falls.

Cameron loves all the tourist trinket stuff!

The path down is loaded with tourist shops.

At the bottom, looking up.

It was now almost 10:30am and we were still pretty much on our own. Other than the occasional tourist shop getting themselves set up, there were only a couple of other tourists around. Seems things don't really start happening here until about noon.

They use these boats to ferry people across, and take you for an up close view of the base of the falls.

Cameron and Sadie.

Looking downstream.

Sadie.

She's always hamming it up for the camera.

Cameron.

An ussie!

A good view of the complete falls.

On the ferry boat!

The "ferry" is a little lame, but they've purposely made it so that you can't hop across the stones and sandbags. So they make you pay 50 cents or whatever for the two minute ride across.

That's a nice shot!

Then we hiked back up to the top on the opposite side. There are a lot of restaurants and shops on this side, some with a view of the falls, and there are a couple of other viewpoints as well.

Another viewpoint looking down, with a rainbow from the mist.

We stopped and had tea with this guy, and everybody liked it so we bought some.

The tourists are arriving!

The other area attraction is the monkeys. We had read, and saw pictures that there are monkeys living in the nearby forests and they've become very tame around people. You can feed them and they are so unafraid they will even hop on your shoulders to get food.

We had already bought a small bag of peanuts, and Cameron was carrying them.

We were walking over to another viewpoint where it looked like there was some monkey activity. On the way there, we came across a fairly large monkey sitting on the railing. Cameron had one of the peanuts in one hand, and the bag in the other. The monkey gently took the peanut with one hand, then quickly snatched the whole bag of peanuts with the other hand! And ran off into a tree to enjoy his take. It was pretty funny.

There was a local guy selling peas (monkeys love peas as well!) and he gave some to Cameron because he had seen what happened with the peanuts.

This monkey was quick to jump onto Cameron's shoulders!

Too funny!

And then Sadie got in on the action too.

Further down, there were whole bunch more monkeys. We had a riot. And it was so interesting just watching them with each other. I took a bunch of photos, but have whittled them down for you. There are still too many!

This momma had a brand new little one clinging to her chest.

This one is just chillin'.

Looking across at the falls.

Just monkeying around.

Sadie and her friend.

Even Grandpa got in on the action.

You can't help but laugh!

The monkeys also play with each other.

The baby, having some lunch.

It was too cute!

We had a lot of fun with the monkeys... it's pretty cheap entertainment. But after an hour or so we headed back up to the campground.

Cameron and Sadie wrote their journals. They are missing school for part of this trip, but they have to report back, so they write down their experiences. Maybe one day I'll copy their journal entry for you here!

Later in the day, Cameron and Sadie asked if I would take them into town. But they had an ulterior motive... they wanted to go back to see the monkeys again! So we spent another hour down there. There were quite a few more people around, and I didn't take any more photos.