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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it really like walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us found out when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first connection with a "guided trek" and that we didn't have any regrets at the end.
To start with, we connect with the team that is consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the effort of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Believe it or not, they will use only female mules as his or her temperament is much better fitted to the job. They begin working with light loads around 12 months and also have a working duration of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules can cost around 950 and can carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of a stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the warmth of the sun as well as in the evening shelter from your cold and also occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it is still very cold at night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers and a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed once we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here had been served by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You can find stunning views from your refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
Recognized we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many around the trek, does not have any electricity, so lighting and heating (for that showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is possible to see the villages with electricity as just about any house includes a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of weather Jamal arranged for people to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an unusual experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and turn into the night. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Here as always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We just necessary to provide our very own sleeping bags - so we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal after the barrenness of most with the trek.
trek atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages in route, though there aren't shops as you may know them inside the High Atlas villages. Every one of the food was cooked by Lahcen, our cook. Unlike Jamal who spoke excellent and colloquial English, the muleteers spoke no English in support of Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and was comprised of a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to manage at 6.30 in the morning! We then tripped for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and become prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to sit down on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is really a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
Whenever we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we had been always offered mint tea. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! We then had time to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life-style. The evening meal was usually soup along with a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever feasible there was berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some along with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. Without a guide it would are already very easy to obtain lost - yet we would meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. One time a boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village within the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to meet us at the very top. When we found its way to a biting wind in the summit he had beaten us and hang in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried up with him that they hoped we would buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again down the valley in his Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we got the small cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Within the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young children were herding goats or travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut in the fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Little by little the standard Berber life-style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and much more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June remains the period of the transhumance for most in high altitude, the upgrading of whole villages in the valleys for the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being ready for summer occupation. These were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wanted to ask where all others was: he'd apparently tripped per week roughly too soon and it was now needing to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we'd meet up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought along with us from England) and further clothing as possible cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots essential for anything but each day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal made certain that we maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber life style. We learned a lot regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also found that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of whenever we are there!
Most of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness through the first few days. We had been glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes in excess of 3000m by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who had walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain of about 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal the following morning, but because we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough and had to descend.
