Ron693
De BISAWiki
Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts love walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 several us found out when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It was our first experience with a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets by the end.
To start with, we meet up with they that's made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they will use only female mules his or her temperament is much better suited to the job. They start working together with light loads at about one year this will let you working life of 27 - 30 years. Good mules may cost around 950 and will carry up to 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of a stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from heat with the sun and also in the night shelter from your cold and also occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it's still snowy during the night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m underneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers along with a large communal area with roaring fire - essential whenever we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still prepared by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from your refuge shop. There are stunning views from your refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
Recognized we stayed in a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was prepared by our personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is easy to see the villages with electricity as nearly every house has a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of weather Jamal arranged for people to settle a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an unusual experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and stay the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Here as always we slept on the floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We only required to provide our personal sleeping-bags - and that we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following the barrenness on most with the trek.
trekking atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages in route, though there aren't shops as we 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 only Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and was comprised of a hot drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to manage at 6.30 in the morning! Only then do we tripped for your 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 - filled with blankets to sit down on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be a major world producer), tuna and salad, as well as - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
Whenever 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 time 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 from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever possible there was clearly fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some along with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. Without a guide it could are already very easy to obtain lost - yet we might meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. On one occasion a boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village within the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us at the very top. When we arrived at a biting wind in the summit he had beaten us and set in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried track of him that she hoped we'd buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again on the valley in his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we had the small cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Inside the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young children were herding goats or travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. After we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Bit by bit the standard Berber way of life is changing as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the time of the transhumance for many in high altitude, the upgrading of whole villages in the valleys to the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These were flanked by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where all others was: he previously apparently set off a week or so too soon and it was now having to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we might meet up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought with us from England) and further clothing as they can be snowy at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots essential for certainly not each day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal ensured that we maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber way of life. We many userful stuff here regarding their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we 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 - a minimum of whenever we were there!
Many of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness through the first few days. We were 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. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain around 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal the next morning, but as we discovered, they were not fit or sufficiently coupled with to descend.
