Tanja85
De BISAWiki
Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it enjoy 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 using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It had been our first experience with a "guided trek" so we didn't have regrets at the conclusion.
First of all, we meet up with the team that's consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot 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 his or her temperament is best suitable for the job. They begin working with light loads at approximately twelve months and have a working lifetime of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules can cost around 950 and can carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of a stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from the warmth of the sun and also in the evening shelter in the cold and even occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it's still snowy at night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening within 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 - essential when we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here had been made by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks in the refuge shop. There are stunning views in the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One night we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, doesn't have electricity, so lighting and heating (for your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was prepared by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, it is easy to find the villages with electricity as virtually every house has a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of bad weather Jamal arranged for people to settle in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an unusual experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and turn into the night. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Because always we used the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We just necessary to provide our own sleeping-bags - and we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal after the barrenness of most with the trek.
trek high atlas
Our three mules carried our food that has been 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. 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 just Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an early meal and contained a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to handle at 6.30 each day! We then set off for the morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and be able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is 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, i was always offered mint tea. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Only then do we had the capacity to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning 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 through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever possible there was 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 rarely waymarked. With out a guide it would happen to be very easy to obtain lost - yet we would meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. One time a boy aged about 14 saw us from his village inside the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us towards the top. Whenever we found its way to a biting wind on the summit he had beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried up with him that they hoped we might buy. We did but higher productivity of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than wish to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again on the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we got the small cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Within 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 in the fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Bit by bit the traditional Berber life-style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons and much more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June is still the duration of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the going up of whole villages from your valleys to the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. They were flanked by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wanted to ask where everybody else was: he previously apparently tripped a week roughly too soon and was now needing to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so when 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 further clothing as possible very cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots needed for not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal ensured that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of 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 learned a lot regarding their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we learned that the indigenous fauna with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it's freezing for snakes and scorpions - at least whenever we were there!
Most of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness during the initial few days. We were glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes in excess of 3000m and also by camping at altitude. Within the refuge we met another party of walkers that had walked up from Imlil in a day, a height gain around 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal the next morning, but because we discovered, they were not fit or well enough coupled with to descend.
