Christina471
De BISAWiki
Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it really like walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 several us found out once we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first experience with a "guided trek" and we didn't have regrets at the end.
First of all, we encounter the c's that is consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the work of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Surprisingly, they will use only female mules as his or her temperament is much better suited to the work. They start working together with light loads at about twelve months and have a working duration of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules could cost around 950 and will carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation around the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually through the side of the stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from the warmth with the sun and also in the night shelter from the cold and even occasional rain. In June, as we learned, will still be snowy at night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) This is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers along with a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed whenever we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here was still prepared by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks in the refuge shop. There are stunning views from the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
Recognized we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about the trek, does not have any electricity, so lighting and heating (for your 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, it is possible to see the villages with electricity as virtually every house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to rainwater Jamal arranged for all of us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an odd experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and stay the evening. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Because always we slept on the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We just necessary to provide our very own sleeping-bags - and that we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It was almost surreal following your barrenness of many of the trek.
high atlas mountains trek
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages in route, though there aren't shops as we know them within the High Atlas villages. All 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 a young meal and was comprised of a hot drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to manage at 6.30 in the morning! Then we trigger for your morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and stay able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or 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! Only then do we had time to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber way of life. The evening meal was usually soup along with a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever you can there was clearly fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some with you.
The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With out a guide it would are already super easy to obtain lost - yet we might meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. One time a young boy aged about 14 saw us from his village in the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us towards the top. When we found its way to a biting wind at the summit he'd beaten us and hang up up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried track of him which he hoped we'd buy. We did but higher productivity of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again along the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we saw the little cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Inside the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young children were herding goats or walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Bit by bit the standard Berber way of life is beginning to change as tracks are widened and turn into passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons plus more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the time of the transhumance for most in the mountains, the moving up of whole villages from your valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where all others was: he had apparently tripped weekly or so too soon and it was now needing to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we might catch up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought around from England) and extra clothing as it can be snowy at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots required for certainly not each day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not so difficult and Jamal made sure that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life style. We many userful stuff here regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we discovered that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - no less than whenever we have there been!
Many of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness throughout the first couple of 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 greater than 3000m and by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain around 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal these morning, but as we discovered, they were not fit or good enough and had to descend.
