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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it love walking inside the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us learned when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first connection with a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets by the end.
To start with, we encounter they that's consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the work of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Surprisingly, they'll use only female mules as his or her temperament is better fitted to the task. They begin dealing with light loads at approximately 12 months and have a working duration of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules may cost around 950 and will carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camp ground sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of your stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against heat from the sun and also in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it's still very cold through the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m underneath 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 - essential when we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still being made by our cook, though we could also buy snacks in the refuge shop. You can find stunning views in the refuge up for the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
One evening 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 that showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, you can easily spot the villages with electricity as just about any house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of weather Jamal arranged for us to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was an odd experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and stay the night time. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Because always we slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We simply needed to provide our own sleeping bags - and we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness on most with the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages along the way, though there aren't shops to be sure them in 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 and just Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and consisted of a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to face at 6.30 each day! 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 then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - Lahcen's speciality - a fashionable dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps 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! We then had time to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber way of life. Supper was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled by the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever you can there was fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With no guide it could happen to be very easy to get lost - yet we'd meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. One time a young boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village in the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us at the very top. When we found its way to a biting wind at the summit he previously beaten us and set up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried on top of him that she hoped we might buy. We did but more out 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 as part of his Wellingtons.
Even as approached the villages we saw the tiny cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Within the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young kids were herding goats or travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Piece by piece the standard Berber life-style is changing as tracks are widened and turn into 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 most in high altitude, the going up of whole villages from the valleys for the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being ready for summer occupation. These were flanked by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everybody else was: he previously apparently set off a week roughly too soon and was now being forced to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we would catch up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought along with us from England) and extra clothing as it can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots needed for anything but each day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal made sure that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing the required time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber way of life. We many userful stuff here about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also learned that the indigenous fauna with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of whenever we were there!
Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the initial few days. We were glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes greater than 3000m and also by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a day, a height gain around 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal the following morning, speculate we discovered, they were not fit or well enough coupled with to descend.
