Crossing the Tizi n'Tich pass in a 1987 Land Rover

The engine had been making a noise like a kettle being ignored since Agouim. By the time we reached the first hairpin, the temperature gauge had given up pretending.

Tizi n'Tich is the old road between Marrakech and Ouarzazate — 2,260 metres of switchbacks, narrow enough that two trucks passing becomes a negotiation. It is not the fastest way south. It is the one that still feels like travel.

Climbing slowly is the whole method

Second gear, mostly. A stop every twenty minutes to let the radiator breathe and to let the brakes cool on the way down. Yusuf, who has driven this road for fifteen seasons, kept one hand on the wheel and one on the gearstick and talked the whole way about which villages had water that year.

“The mountain does not care how fast your car is. It cares whether you are paying attention.”

Halfway up, a man selling fossil ammonites from a blanket waved us down. We bought one for forty dirhams and he threw in directions to a spring we never found.

The top, and the tea

At the summit pass there is a small café with plastic chairs and a view that makes the radiator trouble worth it. Snow on the north faces in February. A pot of tea, three glasses, and a discussion about whether the road would be open the following morning.

If you drive it yourself: start early, carry water, do not rush the descents, and stop for the tea. The pass rewards patience more than horsepower.