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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 several us found out when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first connection with a "guided trek" so we had no regrets at the conclusion.
First of all, we connect with the team which is consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Surprisingly, they'll use only female mules as their temperament is best suited to the task. They begin working with light loads at approximately one year and have a working life of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules can cost around 950 and can carry up to 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually through the side of a stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from the heat of the sun as well as in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it's still snowy through the night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 1000m below the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers and a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed whenever we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here had been prepared by our cook, though we could also buy snacks from your refuge shop. There are stunning views from your refuge up on the Toubkal summit and back down 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 that showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is easy to spot the villages with electricity as virtually every house features a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to bad weather Jamal arranged for all of us to settle in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an unusual experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and stay the night time. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We simply necessary to provide our personal sleeping bags - and we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It was almost surreal following your barrenness of many with the trek.
trek atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages in route, though there aren't shops to be sure them in 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 in support of Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and was comprised of a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to handle at 6.30 in the morning! Then we set off for the morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and stay prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch was obviously a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - 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, i was always offered mint tea. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Only then do we had time to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life-style. Supper 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, until you sneak some together with you.
The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With no guide it might are already super easy to obtain lost - yet we'd meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. On one occasion 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 satisfy us towards the top. Whenever we arrived at a biting wind in the summit he previously beaten us and hang up up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried track of him that they hoped we'd buy. We did but more out of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again down the valley in his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we had the tiny cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Inside the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Small children were herding goats or walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut in the fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Piece by piece the original Berber life-style is evolving as tracks are widened and turn into passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons plus more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the duration of the transhumance for a lot of out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages in the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We saw 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 wondered where everybody else was: he had apparently tripped a week roughly too early and it was now having to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we would get closer 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 very useful and good boots essential for anything but a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal ensured that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing the required time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life-style. We learned a lot about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We discovered that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - at least once we were there!
The majority of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through 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 greater than 3000m 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 of approximately 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal the following morning, but because we discovered, they were not fit or good enough and had to descend.
