Jerilyn654
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 experience of a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we connect with the c's that's composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the effort of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Surprisingly, they will use only female mules as his or her temperament is best suited to the job. They begin dealing with light loads at approximately one year and also have a working lifetime of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules could cost around 950 and will carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of a stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from the warmth of the sun as well as in the night shelter in the cold and even occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it's still very cold through the night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a 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 - necessary whenever 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. You can find stunning views in the refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
Recognized we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for that showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was prepared by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, you can easily find the villages with electricity as virtually every house has a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of weather Jamal arranged for us to settle a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an unusual experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and remain the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Because always we used the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We just required to provide our own sleeping-bags - and that 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 move through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It was almost surreal following your barrenness of most of the trek.
trek atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages along the way, though there aren't shops as you may know them in 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 in support of Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier 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 day! We then tripped for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us on the trail and be prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by 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, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or a Moroccan omelette.
Whenever we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we were always offered mint tea. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Then we had time to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber way of life. Supper 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 feasible there is berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some along 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 would are already quite simple to obtain lost - yet we would meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. On one occasion a boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village within the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m together climbed up over 1000m to meet us at the top. Whenever we arrived in a biting wind at the summit he had beaten us and hang in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried on top of him that she hoped we'd buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than wish to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again along the valley in his Wellingtons.
Even as approached the villages we had the little cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Within 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 your cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Bit by bit the traditional Berber way of life is changing as tracks are widened and turn into passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June is still the time of the transhumance for many in the mountains, the going up of whole villages from your valleys for the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These were flanked by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wanted to ask where all others was: he previously apparently set off per week roughly too early and it was now being forced to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we'd catch 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 cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots required for certainly not each day trek from Imlil. The walking 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 explaining to us the Berber life-style. We many userful stuff here regarding their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also learned that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of when we have there been!
The majority of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness during the first couple of days. I was glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes greater than 3000m and also by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who had walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain of approximately 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal these morning, but as we discovered, they were not fit or sufficiently coupled with to descend.
