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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it really like 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 with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It had been our first connection with a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets at the end.
To begin with, we meet up with they that is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the work of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food necessary 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 work. They start dealing with light loads at about one year and have a working life of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules may cost around 950 and can 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 your stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the heat from the sun as well as in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it is still snowy through the night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 1000m below the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers plus a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed when we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still served by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from the refuge shop. There are 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, doesn't have electricity, so lighting and heating (for that showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is possible to see the villages with electricity as nearly every house has a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to bad weather Jamal arranged for all of us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was an unusual experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and stay the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Here as always we used the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We just necessary 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, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It was almost surreal after the barrenness of many with the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages on the way, even though there aren't shops as we 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 contained a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This was enough to handle at 6.30 each morning! We then trigger for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and become ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to sit on! Lunch was 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 perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
When 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! We then had the capacity to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber life-style. Supper was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever possible there was 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. Without a guide it could happen to be quite simple to acquire lost - yet we would meet young children 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 in the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to meet us at the top. When we arrived in a biting wind in the summit he had beaten us and hang in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried track of him that they hoped we would buy. We did but higher productivity of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up 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. Within the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young children were herding goats or walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. After we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Bit by bit the traditional Berber way of life is changing as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June is still the duration of the transhumance for a lot of in high altitude, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys for the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everyone else was: he previously apparently tripped weekly roughly too quickly and it was now being forced to return down 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 with us from England) and extra clothing as possible cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots needed for not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not so 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 trying to explain to us the Berber way of life. We learned a lot 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's too cold for snakes and scorpions - at least whenever we were there!
Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the first few days. We had been glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes of more than 3000m by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain around 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were struggling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal the next morning, but because we discovered, they weren't fit or sufficiently coupled with to descend.
