Avelina87
De BISAWiki
Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it enjoy walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us found out whenever we did a 7 day trek from Imlil with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It was our first connection with a "guided trek" so we didn't have regrets at the conclusion.
First of all, we meet up with the c's which is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the work of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Surprisingly, they'll use only female mules as their temperament is best suited to the task. They start dealing with light loads at about 12 months and also have a working duration of 27 - 30 years. Good mules could cost around 950 and can carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation around the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of a stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from heat of the sun and also in the night shelter from your cold as well as occasional rain. In June, as we learned, will still be cold at night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 1000m underneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It 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 found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still being prepared by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from the refuge shop. There are stunning views in the refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.
One night we stayed in the 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 made by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, it is possible to spot the villages with electricity as nearly every house has a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of rainwater Jamal arranged for us to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is a strange experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and stay the evening. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we used the floor on comfortable sleeping mats that 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 will always be cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal following your barrenness of most of the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages in route, though there aren't shops as we 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 in support of Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and was comprised of a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to handle at 6.30 each day! Then we trigger for the morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us on the trail and stay ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to sit on! Lunch was obviously 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 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! Only then do we had the capacity to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber way of life. Supper was usually soup along with a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever you can there is fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some together with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and barely waymarked. With out a guide it would are already very easy to obtain lost - yet we would meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. On one occasion a new boy aged about 14 saw us from his village inside the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us at the very top. Once we found its way to a biting wind in the summit he had beaten us and hang up up in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously carried track of him which he hoped we would buy. We did but higher productivity of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than wish to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again down the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
As 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. Small children were herding goats or walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Bit by bit the original Berber way of life is changing as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons plus more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June is still the duration of the transhumance for most in high altitude, the upgrading of whole villages in the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being ready for summer occupation. They were flanked by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everybody else was: he previously apparently set off per week roughly too early and it was now being forced to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we might meet up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought along with us from England) and additional clothing as possible snowy at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots essential for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal made certain that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient 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 about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we found that the indigenous fauna with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of once we have there been!
Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness during the first few days. We were glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes in excess of 3000m and also by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers that had walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain of approximately 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal these morning, speculate we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough coupled with to descend.
