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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it really like walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us learned whenever 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 didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we encounter they that is consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the work of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they'll use only female mules as his or her temperament is much better suitable for the job. They start working with light loads at approximately 12 months and also have a working duration of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules could cost around 950 and can carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining 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 the heat of the sun and also in the night shelter from your cold and even occasional rain. In June, once we learned, will still be cold through the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 1000m below 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 found its way to a snow storm! Our food here had been served by our cook, though we might also buy snacks in the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from your refuge up on the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.
One night 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 your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, you can easily find 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, as a result of bad weather Jamal arranged for people to settle in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an unusual experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and remain the night time. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Here as always we slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We just needed to provide our very own sleeping-bags - and that we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness on most of the trek.
trek atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages in route, even though there aren't shops as you may know them within 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 only 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 face at 6.30 each morning! Only then do we set off for your morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and be able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to sit down on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is really a major world producer), tuna and salad, as well as - Lahcen's speciality - a hot 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. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! We then had the capacity to unwind, 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 from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled by the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever possible there is berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, unless you sneak some along with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. Without a guide it could are already super easy to acquire lost - yet we might meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. On one occasion a new boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village in the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us towards the top. When we found its way to a biting wind in the summit he previously beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously carried up with him that she 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 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. Young children were herding goats or travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut in the fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Piece by piece the standard Berber life style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons and much more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the time of the transhumance for many in high altitude, the going up of whole villages from the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These folks were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wanted to ask where everybody else was: he previously apparently set off a week roughly too soon and it was now being forced to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we might meet up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought with us from England) and further clothing as it can be snowy at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots essential for certainly not a 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. Younger crowd 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 discovered 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 - no less than when we have there been!
Many of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness through the initial few days. We were glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes of more than 3000m and by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a single 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, but as we discovered, they were not fit or good enough together to descend.
