Elbert658
De BISAWiki
Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it love walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us discovered once 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 regrets by the end.
First of all, we meet up with the team that's made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the effort of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Surprisingly, they use only female mules as his or her temperament is much better fitted to the task. They start working with light loads at about one year this will let you working duration of 27 - 30 years. Good mules could cost around 950 and may carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of the stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the warmth of the sun and in the night shelter in the cold and also occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it's still snowy through the night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It's a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers along with a large communal area with roaring fire - essential once we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still being prepared by our cook, though we could also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You will find stunning views from your refuge up on the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
Recognized we stayed in a 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 made by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, it is easy to spot the villages with electricity as virtually every 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 weather Jamal arranged for people to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was a strange experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and stay the evening. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Because always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We just necessary 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 filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal following the barrenness of most from the trek.
trek in atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages in route, even though there aren't shops as you may know 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 and just 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. This was enough to manage at 6.30 each morning! Only then do we tripped for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and become ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit down 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 hot 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. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! We then had time to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber way of life. The evening meal was usually soup along with 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 was clearly fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and barely waymarked. With no guide it might are already quite simple to get lost - yet we would meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a young boy aged about 14 saw us from his village inside the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us towards the top. When we arrived in a biting wind on the summit he previously beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried up with him which he 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 off again down 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. In the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Small children were herding goats or approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Bit by bit the original Berber life-style is changing as tracks are widened and turn into passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons plus more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June remains the duration of the transhumance for most out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys for the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everyone else was: he had apparently trigger a week approximately too quickly and it was now being forced to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we'd get closer the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought with us from England) and additional clothing as possible very cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots needed for anything but per day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is simple enough and Jamal ensured that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing the required time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber way of life. We learned a lot regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we discovered that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it's too cold for snakes and scorpions - no less than when we were there!
Many of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness through the first few days. We had been glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes greater than 3000m and 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 were not experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they were not fit or good enough together to descend.
