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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it enjoy walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us discovered whenever 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" and that we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we connect with the team that's composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the work of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Believe it or not, they will use only female mules his or her temperament is better fitted to the job. They begin dealing with light loads around 12 months this will let you working lifetime of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules could cost around 950 and may carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of your stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the heat of the sun and in the evening shelter from your cold and also occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it's still very cold through the night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 1000m below 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 - much needed when we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here was still served by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from your refuge up on the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
One evening we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many around the trek, doesn't have electricity, so lighting and heating (for your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is easy to spot the villages with electricity as just about any house features a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to rainwater Jamal arranged for all of us to settle a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an odd experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and turn into the night time. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we used the floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We just needed to provide our own sleeping-bags - and that we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to 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 on most from the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages in route, though there aren't shops to be sure them within the High Atlas villages. All 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 early meal and was comprised of a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This was enough to face at 6.30 each day! We then tripped for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us on the trail and become prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit on! Lunch was obviously 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 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 the capacity to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber way of life. The evening meal was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever you can there is fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, unless you sneak some along with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With no guide it might are already very easy to get lost - yet we might meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a new boy aged about 14 saw us from his village inside the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us towards the top. Whenever we arrived in a biting wind at the summit he had beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried track of him that she hoped we would 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 off again on the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
Even as 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. Young children were herding goats or approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Piece by piece the traditional 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 attached to a mains supply.
But June is still the time of the transhumance for a lot of in high altitude, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys to the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These 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 approximately too early and it was now being forced to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we might 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 they can be cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots needed for anything but each day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal made sure that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life-style. We many userful stuff here 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 that it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - at least when we were there!
Many of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness throughout the initial few days. We were glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes of more than 3000m and by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers that had walked up from Imlil in a day, a height gain of about 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal the following morning, but as we discovered, they were not fit or sufficiently coupled with to descend.
