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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts enjoy walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us found out when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil and among Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first connection with a "guided trek" so we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
First of all, we connect with the c's which is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Believe it or not, they'll use only female mules as his or her temperament is best suitable for the work. They begin working together with light loads at about 12 months this will let you working life of 27 - 30 years. Good mules could cost around 950 and will carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camping 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 the heat of the sun and also in the night shelter in the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, will still be very cold through the night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m underneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) This is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers along with a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed when we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still served by our cook, though we could also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You can find stunning views from the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.
One evening we stayed in a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many around the trek, doesn't have electricity, so lighting and heating (for that showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, you can easily spot the villages with electricity as nearly every house has a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to bad weather Jamal arranged for people to settle a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was an unusual experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and remain the night. 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 which the mules carried. We simply required to provide our personal sleeping bags - and we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal following your barrenness of many of the trek.
trek in atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages along the way, even though there aren't shops as you may know them inside the High Atlas villages. All 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 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 manage at 6.30 in the morning! We then trigger for your 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 - complete with blankets to sit down on! Lunch was obviously a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - 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, i was always offered mint tea. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Only then do we had time to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life style. Supper 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 possible there was clearly berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. With no guide it would have been super easy to obtain lost - yet we might meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. One time a young boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village inside the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us towards the top. Whenever we found its way to a biting wind at the summit he had beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried up with him which he hoped we would buy. We did but more out of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again along the valley in the Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we got 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. Young children were herding goats or approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut in the fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Piece by piece the standard Berber life-style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons and more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June is still the time of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the moving up of whole villages from the valleys for the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These folks 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 per week approximately too early and was now needing to return on 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 around from England) and extra clothing as they can be snowy at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots required for not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal ensured that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. He also took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber way of life. We learned a lot regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also found that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - at least once we were there!
Most of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness during the first couple of days. We had been glad that by the time 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. 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 meant to climb Toubkal these morning, speculate we discovered, they weren't fit or sufficiently coupled with to descend.
