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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it enjoy walking inside the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us found out once we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It had been our first experience of a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets by the end.
First of all, we encounter the c's that's made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they'll use only female mules his or her temperament is better suitable for the job. They start working with light loads at about one year this will let you working life of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules may cost around 950 and can carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camp ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of the stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from the heat of the sun as well as in the evening shelter from the cold and even occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it is still cold at night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 1000m below the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It's a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers and a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed once we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here had been served by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You will find stunning views in the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.
One night we stayed in a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, does not have any electricity, so lighting and heating (for the showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was prepared by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, you can easily see the villages with electricity as just about any house has a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to bad weather Jamal arranged for all of us to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was a strange experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and remain the evening. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Here as always we slept on the floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We just needed to provide our personal sleeping bags - and we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal after the barrenness of many from the trek.
trekking 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 along the way, though there aren't shops to be sure them within 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 and just Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an early meal and was comprised of a fashionable drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to manage at 6.30 each morning! Only then do we set off for your morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us on the trail and become prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a fashionable dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.
When we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we were always offered mint tea. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Then we had time to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever you can there was clearly fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, unless you sneak some together with you.
The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. With no guide it would are already very easy to obtain lost - yet we might 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 inside the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us at the top. Once 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 had carried on top of him which he hoped we would buy. We did but more out of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again along the valley in his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we had the small cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. In 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 from your fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. After we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Piece by piece the standard Berber way of life is beginning to change as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons plus more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the time of the transhumance for many in high altitude, the going up of whole villages from your valleys to the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being ready for summer occupation. These folks were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where all others was: he previously apparently set off per week or so too quickly and was now having to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we would get closer the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought around from England) and further clothing as they can be cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots essential for certainly not per day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal made sure that we maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber way of life. We learned a lot regarding their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We discovered that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of when we are there!
The majority of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness throughout the initial few days. We were glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes of more than 3000m and also by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain of about 1500m. They weren't 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 were not fit or well enough coupled with to descend.
