Kristyn52
De BISAWiki
Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it enjoy walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us found out whenever we did a 7 day trek from Imlil and among Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It had been our first experience with a "guided trek" and we didn't have regrets by the end.
To begin with, we connect with the c's that's composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the effort 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 use only female mules as their temperament is better suitable for the work. They begin working with light loads at approximately twelve months this will let you working life of 27 - 30 years. Good mules can cost around 950 and may carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing 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 protection from the warmth with the sun and in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, will still be cold at night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) This is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers and a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed when we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here had been served by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You can find stunning views from 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 around the trek, does not have any electricity, so lighting and heating (for the showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is possible to find the villages with electricity as nearly every house features a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to bad weather Jamal arranged for us to settle in a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was a strange experience as 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 isn't! Because always we slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We only necessary to provide our own sleeping bags - and that we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal following your barrenness on most of the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages on the way, even though there aren't shops as you may know them within the High Atlas villages. All the food was cooked by Lahcen, our cook. Unlike Jamal who spoke excellent and colloquial English, the muleteers spoke no English and only Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an early meal and consisted of a warm 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! 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 able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit down on! Lunch was obviously a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is really a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or 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! Then we had time to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever you can there was clearly fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some along with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With no guide it might are already very easy to obtain lost - yet we might meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. One time a boy aged about 14 saw us from his village within the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us at the very top. Whenever we arrived at a biting wind on the summit he'd beaten us and set up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried on top of him that they 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 set off again down the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we had the tiny 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 travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Piece by piece the standard Berber life-style is evolving as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons and much more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the duration of the transhumance for a lot of out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages in the valleys for the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These were flanked by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where everybody else was: he'd apparently trigger a week approximately too soon and it was now having to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we would meet 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 possible cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots essential for certainly not each day trek from Imlil. The walking is simple enough and Jamal ensured that we 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 way of life. We learned a lot regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also learned that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - at least once we were 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'd acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes of more than 3000m and by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a day, a height gain of approximately 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were struggling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal these morning, but as we discovered, they were not fit or sufficiently coupled with to descend.
