Percy777
De BISAWiki
Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What exactly is it love walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 several us learned whenever we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It had been our first experience with a "guided trek" so we didn't have any regrets by the end.
To begin with, we connect with the c's that's made up 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 in the rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they will use only female mules as his or her temperament is better suitable for the task. They start working with light loads at approximately one year and also have a working duration of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules may cost around 950 and may carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of your stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against heat from the sun as well as in the evening shelter in the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it's still very cold through the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all 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 when we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here had been prepared by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You will find stunning views from the refuge up on the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
Recognized we stayed in a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about the trek, has no 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 inside the village. Incidentally, it is possible to find the villages with electricity as just about any house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to bad weather Jamal arranged for us to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was a strange experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and remain the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we used the floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We simply necessary to provide our very own sleeping-bags - and that we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It was almost surreal following the barrenness on most of the trek.
trek high atlas
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages on the way, even though there aren't shops as we know them in the High Atlas villages. All 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 earlier meal and contained 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 around the trail and stay prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit down on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, as well as - Lahcen's speciality - a fashionable dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
Once 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! Only then do we had time to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever feasible there was clearly fruit (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 barely waymarked. Without a guide it would happen to be super easy to get lost - yet we would 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 saw us from his village inside the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m together climbed up over 1000m to meet us at the very top. Whenever we arrived in a biting wind on the summit he'd beaten us and hang up up in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously carried on top of him which he hoped we would buy. We did but more out 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 on the valley in his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we saw the little cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Inside 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 in the fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. After we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Piece by piece the original Berber life-style is evolving as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons and much more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June remains the time of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the moving up of whole villages from the valleys for the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. They were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wanted to ask where everybody else was: he'd apparently trigger per week roughly too early and it was now being forced to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we might catch up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought along with us from England) and further clothing as possible very cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots needed for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not so difficult and Jamal made certain that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life-style. We many userful stuff here about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we learned that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - at least when we were there!
The majority of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness through the first couple of days. We were glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes greater than 3000m by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers that had walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain around 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough coupled with to descend.
