Gina66
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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts 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 with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It had been our first experience of a "guided trek" and we had no regrets at the end.
To start with, we meet up with they which is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the effort of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Believe it or not, they will use only female mules as his or her temperament is much better suited to the job. They begin working together with light loads at approximately one year and also have a working life of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules could cost around 950 and will carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of your stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from the warmth from the sun and in the night shelter from your cold as well as occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it's still snowy at night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 1000m underneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It's a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers plus a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed when we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here had been made by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from your refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
One evening we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was prepared by our personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is possible to see the villages with electricity as just about any house includes a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of bad weather Jamal arranged for people to settle in a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an odd experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and turn into the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Here as always we used the floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We just needed to provide our personal sleeping bags - and we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It was almost surreal following the barrenness of many with the trek.
high atlas mountains trek
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages along the way, even though there aren't shops to be sure them inside 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 earlier meal and contained 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 morning! Then we tripped for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and become prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be 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.
Whenever we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we had been always offered mint tea. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! We then had the capacity to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber life-style. The evening meal was usually soup along with a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever feasible there is berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, unless you sneak some together with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With out a guide it might happen to be very easy to acquire lost - yet we might meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a young boy aged about 14 saw us from his village inside 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 in a biting wind on the summit he previously beaten us and hang up 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 higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again on the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we had the small cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Inside the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young kids were herding goats or approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Little by little the standard Berber way of life is changing as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons plus more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the period of the transhumance for most in the mountains, the going up of whole villages from your valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. They were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wanted to ask where everyone else was: he previously apparently set off per week or so too soon and was now having to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we would catch up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought with us from England) and extra clothing as they can be cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots needed for anything but each day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal ensured that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. He also took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber life style. We many userful stuff here about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We found that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - at least when we are there!
Many of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the first couple of days. I was glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes of more than 3000m by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers that had walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain of about 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were struggling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal the next morning, but as we discovered, they were not fit or well enough together to descend.
