Ethelene262
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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it really like walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping 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 was our first experience of a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets by the end.
To start with, we connect with the team which is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the effort of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Believe it or not, they use only female mules his or her temperament is much better suitable for the work. They begin working with light loads at approximately 12 months and also have a working life of 27 - 30 years. Good mules may cost around 950 and will carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of a stream or river - perfect 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, even as learned, will still be very cold at night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night 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 plus a large communal area with roaring fire - necessary once we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still being made by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You will find stunning views from your refuge up on the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One evening we stayed in a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for the showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was prepared by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is easy to spot the villages with electricity as nearly every house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of weather Jamal arranged for us to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was a strange experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and stay the night. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Because always we slept on the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We just required to provide our own sleeping-bags - and we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness of most from the trek.
trekking atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages along the way, 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. This was enough to handle at 6.30 each morning! Only then do we trigger for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and be ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit down on! Lunch would be 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 perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
Once we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we were 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 in regards to the Berber way of life. Supper was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever feasible there is fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some with you.
The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and barely waymarked. Without a guide it could happen to be quite simple to get lost - yet we would meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. One time a boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village inside the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us at the top. When we found its way to a biting wind at the summit he'd beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried track of him which he hoped we'd buy. We did but higher productivity of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again along the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we saw 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. Young kids were herding goats or approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Piece by piece the original Berber life-style is evolving as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and much more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June is still the time of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys to the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being 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 all others was: he'd apparently tripped a week roughly too early and was now needing to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we'd 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 cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots essential for certainly not per day trek from Imlil. The walking is simple enough and Jamal ensured that people 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 way of life. We learned a lot about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also discovered that the indigenous fauna with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - no less than when we have there been!
The majority of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the initial few days. We were glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes in excess of 3000m and also by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain of approximately 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, speculate we discovered, they were not fit or good enough coupled with to descend.
