Joanne836
De BISAWiki
Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it love walking inside the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us discovered when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil and among Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It was our first connection with a "guided trek" and that we didn't have regrets at the end.
To begin with, we encounter the team which is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Believe it or not, they'll use only female mules his or her temperament is better fitted to the task. They start working with light loads around twelve months this will let you working life of 27 - 30 years. Good mules could cost around 950 and may carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation around the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camp ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of a stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the heat with the sun and in the night shelter from your cold and also occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it's still cold at night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m underneath 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 - much needed once we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still prepared by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from the refuge up on the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
Recognized we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, does not have any electricity, so lighting and heating (for your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is easy to spot the villages with electricity as virtually every house has a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to weather Jamal arranged for us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is a strange experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and turn into the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we slept on the floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We simply needed 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, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal following your barrenness on most from the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages along the way, though there aren't shops as you may know them in 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 contained a hot drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This was enough to handle at 6.30 in the morning! Only then do we tripped for the morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and become able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to sit down on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - Lahcen's speciality - a warm dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.
When 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! Then we had the capacity to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled by 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.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. With no guide it could happen to be super easy to acquire lost - yet we'd meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. One time a new boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village within the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m together climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us at the very top. Whenever we arrived at a biting wind at the summit he'd beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried up with him that she hoped we would buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again along 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. In the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young kids were herding goats or travelling to 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 back to their villages. Piece by piece the standard Berber life-style is evolving as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons plus more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains the duration of the transhumance for a lot of in the mountains, the going up of whole villages from the valleys to the high summer pastures. We got 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 was wondering where all others was: he had apparently tripped a week or so too quickly and was now having to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we would meet up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought around from England) and further clothing as it can be snowy at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots required for not per day trek from Imlil. The walking is not difficult and Jamal ensured that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing the required time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. He also took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life style. We learned a lot regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also found that the indigenous fauna with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of once we have there been!
The majority of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the first couple of days. We were glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes greater than 3000m and by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain of about 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were struggling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough together to descend.
