Tammara669
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Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it love walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us found out when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil and among Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first connection with a "guided trek" and that we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we connect with the team which is consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the effort of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Believe it or not, they'll use only female mules as their temperament is best fitted to the task. They start dealing with light loads at about twelve months and also have a working life of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules can cost around 950 and may carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually from 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 in the cold and also occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it is still very cold at night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 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 - necessary when we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still prepared by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from the refuge shop. There are stunning views in the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
Recognized 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 personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, you can easily spot the villages with electricity as nearly every house features a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of bad weather Jamal arranged for people to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an odd experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and stay the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Here as always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We just required to provide our very own sleeping-bags - and that we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following the barrenness of most from the trek.
trekking atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages in route, even though there aren't shops as you may know them within 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 only 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 set off for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and become prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to sit on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is really a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - Lahcen's speciality - a warm dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
Whenever 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 time to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled by the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever feasible there was clearly berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some along with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. Without a guide it might are already quite simple to obtain lost - yet we'd meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a boy aged about 14 saw us from his village inside the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us at the very top. When we arrived at a biting wind at the summit he previously beaten us and set in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried track of him that they hoped we'd buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again along the valley in his Wellingtons.
Even as approached the villages we had the small cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. In the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young kids were herding goats or walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Little by little the traditional Berber way of life is evolving as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and much more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains the duration of the transhumance for most out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages from your valleys towards the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where everybody else was: he previously apparently tripped weekly or so too quickly and it was now having to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we'd 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 additional clothing as they can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots essential for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is simple enough and Jamal ensured that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber way of life. We many userful stuff here about 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 it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - at least when we were there!
Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness throughout the first couple of days. I was glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes greater than 3000m and by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who had walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain of about 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they were not fit or sufficiently and had to descend.
