Noe12

Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco<br /><br />What exactly is it really like walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us discovered when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It was our first experience of a "guided trek" so we didn't have regrets at the end.<br /><br />To begin with, we encounter they that is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the effort of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Surprisingly, they use only female mules his or her temperament is much better suitable for the job. They begin dealing with light loads at approximately 12 months this will let you working life of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules could cost around 950 and will carry as much as 140kg.<br /><br />Accommodation around the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of your stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from the heat with the sun and in the evening shelter in the cold and even occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it's still cold through the night once we camped above 2,000m.<br /><br />We stayed an evening in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 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 - necessary whenever we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here was still being made by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You can find stunning views in the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.<br /><br />One night we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many around the trek, has no 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, it is possible to see the villages with electricity as nearly every house includes a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.<br /><br />On another occasion, due to bad weather Jamal arranged for us to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was an unusual experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and remain the night. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Because always we slept on the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that the 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 full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It was almost surreal after the barrenness of most from the trek.<br /><br />[http://trekhighatlas.livejournal.com/709.html trekking atlas mountains]<br /><br />Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within 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 and only Lahcen spoke some French.<br />Breakfast was a young meal and consisted of a fashionable drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to face at 6.30 each morning! We then set off for that morning's trek.<br /><br />After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and stay prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, as well as - Lahcen's speciality - a fashionable dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.<br /><br />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 the capacity 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 from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever possible there is berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some with you.<br /><br />Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and barely waymarked. With out a guide it could happen to be super easy to obtain lost - yet we'd meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. On one occasion a new boy aged about 14 saw us from his village in the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us at the very top. Whenever we found its way to a biting wind at the summit he previously beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously 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 set off again down the valley in his Wellingtons.<br />As we approached the villages we had 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. Small 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. After we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Piece by piece the traditional Berber life style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons plus more villages are linked to a mains supply.<br /><br />But June is still the period of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. They 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 trigger weekly approximately too soon and was now being forced to return down the valley!<br /><br />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 along with us from England) and extra clothing as it can be snowy at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots required for not a day trek from Imlil. The walking is simple enough and Jamal made sure that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life-style. We learned a lot regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also learned that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it's too cold for snakes and scorpions - no less than whenever we were there!<br /><br />Most of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness during the first few days. I was glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes of more than 3000m by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers that had walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain of approximately 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal the following morning, speculate we discovered, they were not fit or sufficiently together to descend.