Bin el Ouidane
A Large Reservoir In The Middle Atlas Behind A Dam Completed In The Early 1950s, With Blue Water Against Red Hills And The Road On Toward The Ahansal Gorges And The Rock Spire Known As The Cathedral · Bin el Ouidane, Beni Mellal-Khenifra
Bin el Ouidane is a large reservoir in the Middle Atlas, held behind a dam on the El Abid river that was completed in the early 1950s and stands roughly 130 m high. The look of it is the reason to come: deep blue water against bare red hills, a fringe of olive and almond on the terraces, and a road that bends around the shoreline with a different view at every turn. Be clear about what this is. The lake is a working hydroelectric and irrigation scheme that waters the Tadla plain, not a resort; there is no town, the facilities are a scatter of lodges and cafes above the shore, and much of the bank is steep and roadless. What you get is swimming off rock and shingle, kayaking on flat water, decent fishing, big birdlife and the road on south into the Ahansal gorges, where the limestone spire known as the Cathedral draws climbers. The honest caveat is the water level. Every photograph shows a full lake, and in a dry year the reservoir drops a long way and leaves a pale ring of mud and stone between the water and the trees.
Reservoir behind the Bin el Ouidane dam on the El Abid river, about 40 km south-west of Azilal and 30 km from Ouzoud, Bin el Ouidane, Beni Mellal-Khenifra, Morocco
The lake, the dam viewpoints and the shore roads have no opening hours and nothing to pay; this is open countryside with a public road around part of it. The dam itself is working infrastructure, so you look at it from the road rather than walking onto it, and photographing the structure and its installations is better avoided. Lodges, cafes and boat hire above the shore are strongly seasonal: most run from around April to October, many close or go quiet from November to February, and midweek out of season you may find nothing open at all - confirm directly before you drive. Boats, kayaks and fishing trips are arranged on the spot through the lodges rather than booked online, and a weekend bed in July or August does need reserving ahead. Getting there: it is roughly 40 km south-west of Azilal and about an hour and a half from Beni Mellal by hired car or grand taxi, on tarmac the whole way, with Ouzoud Falls about 30 km off. There is no useful public transport around the lake itself. Ramadan quietens the cafes during daylight.