Gonzalo885
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Trek within 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 once we did a 7 day trek from Imlil and among Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It was our first experience with a "guided trek" and that we didn't have regrets at the conclusion.
To begin with, we connect with they that 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 necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they'll use only female mules his or her temperament is best fitted to the work. They start working together with light loads at about one year and also have a working duration of 27 - 30 years. Good mules can cost around 950 and may carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation around the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually through the side of your stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from the warmth with the sun and also in the evening shelter from your cold and also occasional rain. In June, even as learned, will still be cold during the night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) This is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers and a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed whenever we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still being served by our cook, though we're able to 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 evening we stayed in 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 made by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, you can easily find the villages with electricity as nearly every house has a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of bad weather Jamal arranged for us to settle in a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an unusual experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and stay the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we slept on the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We only necessary to provide our very own sleeping bags - and we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold at 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 with 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 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 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. It was enough to manage at 6.30 in the morning! Only then do we set off 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 able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch was obviously a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, as well as - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
When we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we were always offered mint tea. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Then we had time to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber life-style. The evening meal was usually soup and 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 feasible there is berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some together with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. With no guide it could are already quite simple to get lost - yet we might meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. One time a young boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village in the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to meet us towards the top. Once we arrived at a biting wind at the summit he'd beaten us and hang up up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried up with him which he hoped we might buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again down the valley in the Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we saw 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 approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut in the fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Little by little the traditional Berber life style is evolving as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons plus more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the period of the transhumance for most in high altitude, the going up of whole villages in the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. They were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where all others was: he previously apparently tripped weekly approximately too early and was now needing to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we might get closer 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 very cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots essential for anything but a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not so difficult and Jamal ensured that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber way of life. We many userful stuff here about 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 freezing for snakes and scorpions - at least whenever we were there!
Most of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness throughout the first few days. We had been glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes of more than 3000m and by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain of about 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they were not fit or well enough together to descend.
