Gino394
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Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it enjoy walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us learned when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil and among Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first experience with a "guided trek" and we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To begin with, we connect with they that is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the work of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they will use only female mules as their temperament is much better fitted to the job. They start working together with light loads around twelve months this will let you working life of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules can cost around 950 and can carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of the stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the heat of the sun as well as 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 per night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 1000m below the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It's a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers and a large communal area with roaring fire - necessary once we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still served by our cook, though we could also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from your refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One evening we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, does not have any 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, it is possible to spot the villages with electricity as just about any house includes a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of bad weather Jamal arranged for people to settle a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was a strange experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and remain the evening. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Here as always we slept on the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We simply required to provide our own sleeping bags - and we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following your barrenness on most of the trek.
trekking 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, even though there aren't shops as you may know 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 a young meal and contained a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to face at 6.30 in the morning! Only then do 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 be prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, as well as - Lahcen's speciality - a fashionable dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or a Moroccan omelette.
Once 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 time to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber way of life. The evening meal 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 possible there was clearly berry (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 barely waymarked. Without a guide it could happen to be quite simple to obtain lost - yet we'd meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. One time a young boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village in the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m together climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us at the very top. Whenever we arrived at a biting wind at the summit he had beaten us and set up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried on top of him that they hoped we'd buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than wish to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again down the valley as part of 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. Small children were herding goats or walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Bit by bit the original Berber way of life is beginning to change as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and much more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the time of the transhumance for many in the mountains, 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 encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everybody else was: he had apparently trigger per week or so too early and it was now needing to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we'd catch up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought with us from England) and extra clothing as it can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots required for certainly not per day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal made sure that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. He also took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life-style. We learned a lot regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We found that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - no less than when we are there!
The majority of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness throughout the initial few days. We were glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes greater than 3000m by camping at altitude. Within the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a day, a height gain of about 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal the next morning, speculate we discovered, they weren't fit or sufficiently and had to descend.
