Hassan537
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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it love walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 several us learned 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 that we had no regrets by the end.
To start with, we connect with the c's that is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the work of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Surprisingly, they will use only female mules as his or her temperament is best fitted to the task. They begin working together with light loads at about 12 months and also have a working life of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules may cost around 950 and can carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation around the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining 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 as well as in the night shelter in the cold and even occasional rain. In June, even as learned, will still be cold during the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 1000m beneath 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 - essential once we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here was still made by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from 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 about the trek, does not have any electricity, so lighting and heating (for that showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is easy to find the villages with electricity as just about any house features a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of weather Jamal arranged for us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an unusual experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and stay the evening. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We simply necessary to provide our own sleeping bags - so we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness of most with the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages in route, even though there aren't shops as we 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 in support of Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was a young meal and contained a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to face at 6.30 in the morning! Then 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 prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to sit down on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - Lahcen's speciality - a warm dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.
Once 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! Then we had the capacity to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled by the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever feasible there was clearly fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some along with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and barely waymarked. With no guide it could have been quite simple to acquire lost - yet we might meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. On one occasion a young 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 towards the top. When we arrived in a biting wind at the summit he had beaten us and set in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried on top of him which he hoped we'd buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again on the valley in the Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we got the little cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. In the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Small 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. Little by little the standard Berber way of life is changing as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the duration of the transhumance for a lot of in high altitude, the going up of whole villages from your valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These folks were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where all others was: he'd apparently set off per week or so too quickly and it 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 around from England) and further clothing as it can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots required for not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is simple enough and Jamal made certain that we maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber life-style. We learned a lot about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We learned that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - no less than whenever we were there!
The majority of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness throughout the initial few days. We were glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes in excess of 3000m by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain of approximately 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were struggling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough together to descend.
