Jolene99
De BISAWiki
Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it really like walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us learned when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first experience of a "guided trek" and we had no regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we encounter the team which is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Believe it or not, they'll use only female mules his or her temperament is better fitted to the job. They begin dealing with light loads at approximately twelve months and have a working lifetime of 27 - 30 years. Good mules may cost around 950 and may carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation around the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camp 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 heat from the sun as well as in the evening shelter from the cold and also occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it's still very cold at night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all 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 whenever we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here had been made by our cook, though we could also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You will find stunning views in the refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One evening we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about 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 within the village. Incidentally, it is possible to spot the villages with electricity as just about any house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of rainwater Jamal arranged for all of us to settle a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was a strange experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and turn into the night time. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Here as always we slept on the ground on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We simply needed to provide our personal sleeping-bags - and that we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal after the barrenness of many with the trek.
trek atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages in route, though there aren't shops to be sure 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 an early meal and was comprised of a fashionable 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 on! Lunch would be 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 a Moroccan omelette.
Whenever 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 time to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber way of life. Supper was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever you can there was clearly berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. With no guide it would are already very easy to obtain lost - yet we might meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any 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. Once we arrived in a biting wind on the summit he'd beaten us and hang in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried on top of him that she hoped we might buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again along the valley in the Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we had the little 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 approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your 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 standard Berber life-style is evolving as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and much more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains the duration of the transhumance for many in high altitude, the going up of whole villages from your valleys to the high summer pastures. We saw 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 wanted to ask where everyone else was: he had apparently tripped a week approximately too soon and was now being forced to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we would catch 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 it can be cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots essential for anything but each day trek from Imlil. The walking is simple enough and Jamal ensured that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of 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 their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also learned 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 - no less than whenever we were there!
Many of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness throughout the initial few days. We had been glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes in excess of 3000m and also by camping at altitude. Within the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a 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 because we discovered, they weren't fit or sufficiently coupled with to descend.
