Kori95
De BISAWiki
Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts really like walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 several us found out 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 experience with a "guided trek" so we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we encounter the c's that is 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 necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Surprisingly, they'll use only female mules his or her temperament is much better suited to the job. They begin working together with light loads at about 12 months this will let you working lifetime of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules can cost around 950 and will carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camp ground sites were often idyllic, usually through the side of a stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from heat of the sun and in the night shelter in the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it's still very cold at night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m beneath 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 whenever we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still made by our cook, though we could also buy snacks in the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from the refuge up on the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
Recognized we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many around 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 within the village. Incidentally, you can easily find the villages with electricity as just about any house includes a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of rainwater Jamal arranged for people to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was an unusual experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and stay the evening. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We simply necessary to provide our personal sleeping bags - so we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness of most with the trek.
high atlas mountains trek
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages in route, 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 was comprised of a fashionable drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to handle at 6.30 each morning! Only then do we trigger for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and stay ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit 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 warm dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.
Once we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we had been always offered mint tea. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! We then had time to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup along with a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever possible there was fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some together with you.
The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With out a guide it could happen to be super easy to acquire lost - yet we'd meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. One time a new boy aged about 14 saw us from his village in the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us at the top. When we found its way to a biting wind at the summit he previously beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried up with him that she hoped we'd buy. We did but more out of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than wish to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again down the valley in his Wellingtons.
Even as approached the villages we got 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 travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw an enormous 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 turn into passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons plus more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the duration of the transhumance for most in high altitude, the going up of whole villages in the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being ready for summer occupation. These folks 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 trigger a week approximately too soon and it was now having to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we would meet up with 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 it can be cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots essential for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal ensured that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber life-style. We many userful stuff here regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we learned 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 are there!
The majority of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the initial few days. I was glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes in excess of 3000m and also 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 approximately 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal the following morning, speculate we discovered, they were not fit or well enough and had to descend.
