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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco

What is it love walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us found out 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" so we had no regrets at the conclusion.

To begin with, we connect with they that is consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Surprisingly, they will use only female mules as their temperament is best suited to the work. They start working together with light loads around one year and have a working duration of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules may cost around 950 and may carry as much as 140kg.

Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of a stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the heat with the sun and in the evening shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it's still snowy through the night once we camped above 2,000m.

We stayed a night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is 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 - necessary whenever we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still made by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks in the refuge shop. You can find stunning views in the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.

One evening we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is possible to spot the villages with electricity as just about any house has a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.

On another occasion, because of bad weather Jamal arranged for people to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an unusual experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and turn into the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Because always we slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We just required to provide our very own sleeping-bags - and we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It was almost surreal following the barrenness on most of the trek.

trek in atlas mountains

Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages on the way, even though there aren't shops as you may know 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 and only Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and contained a fashionable drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to manage 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 about the trail and stay able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.

When 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! Then we had the capacity to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber life-style. Supper was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from 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 rarely waymarked. Without a guide it might happen to be very easy to get lost - yet we would meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. On one occasion a new boy aged about 14 saw us from his village within the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us at the very top. When we found its way to a biting wind in the summit he previously beaten us and set in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried up with him that she hoped we would 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 hang up off again along the valley in the Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we saw the little 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 from the fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Little by little the original Berber life style is beginning to change 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 time of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the going up of whole villages from the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had 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 had apparently set off a week roughly too quickly and was now needing to return down the valley!

We carried only day packs and as we knew we might get closer the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought along with us from England) and extra clothing as possible very cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots essential for not a day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal made sure that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing the required time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. He also took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber life style. We learned a lot regarding 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 it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - no less than whenever we have there been!

Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness during the initial few days. We had been glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes of more than 3000m by camping at altitude. Within the refuge we met another party of walkers who had walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain around 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal the next morning, speculate we discovered, they weren't fit or good enough together to descend.