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Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it really like walking inside the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 several us found out when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It was our first experience with a "guided trek" and that we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we encounter the c's that's 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 needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they will use only female mules as their temperament is best suited to the task. They start dealing with light loads at approximately twelve months and also have a working duration of 27 - 30 years. Good mules can cost around 950 and may carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation around 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 - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the heat of the sun as well as in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, once we learned, will still be very cold during the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m below the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers plus a large communal area with roaring fire - much needed when we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still prepared by our cook, though we could also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You can find stunning views from the refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.
One night we stayed in a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for the showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is easy to spot the villages with electricity as just about any house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of bad weather Jamal arranged for us to settle 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 turn into the night. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we used the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We only needed to provide our very own sleeping-bags - and that we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness of most from 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 within the villages on the way, even though there aren't shops to be sure them within 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 just Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was a young meal and consisted of a fashionable drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to face at 6.30 each day! We then tripped for your 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 on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a fashionable dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
Whenever 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 the capacity to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life-style. Supper 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 over a small gas stove. Whenever feasible there was clearly fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With out a guide it would have been very easy to get lost - yet we'd meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. On one occasion a young boy aged about 14 saw us from his village within the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m together climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us towards the top. Whenever we found its way to a biting wind on the summit he had beaten us and set in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried track of him that they hoped we would 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 up off again down the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we saw the tiny cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Within the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Small children were herding goats or travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Piece by piece the traditional Berber way of life is evolving as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains the time of the transhumance for most in high altitude, the going up of whole villages from the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These folks 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 per week approximately too soon and was now having to return down 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 with us from England) and additional clothing as possible very cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots needed for anything but a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal ensured that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber way of life. We learned a lot regarding 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 whenever we are there!
Many of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness throughout the first 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 by camping at altitude. Within 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 meant to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they were not fit or well enough and had to descend.
