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Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts enjoy walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us discovered whenever 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 with a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets at the conclusion.
First of all, we encounter the team that is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Surprisingly, they use only female mules as their temperament is better fitted to the work. They begin working together with light loads around one year this will let you working lifetime of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules can cost around 950 and may carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camp ground sites were often idyllic, usually through the side of the stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the warmth with the sun and in the evening shelter in the cold and even occasional rain. In June, as we learned, will still be snowy during the 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's a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers plus a large communal area with roaring fire - essential whenever we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still served by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You can find stunning views in the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
Recognized we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for the showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was prepared by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is easy to find the villages with electricity as virtually every house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of bad weather Jamal arranged for all of us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an unusual experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and remain the night. 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 the mules carried. We just necessary to provide our own sleeping-bags - and we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is full of 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 which was supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages in route, 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 a young meal and consisted of a hot drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This was enough to handle at 6.30 each day! We then trigger for the morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and become able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to sit on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, as well as - Lahcen's speciality - a warm dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or a Moroccan omelette.
When we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, i was always offered mint tea. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! We then had time to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber way of life. The evening meal was usually soup along with a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever you can there was fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, unless you sneak some with you.
Most 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 children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. On one occasion a new boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village inside the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to meet us at the very top. Whenever we arrived at a biting wind at the summit he previously beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously carried track of him that they hoped we'd buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again on the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we got the tiny cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Inside 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 the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Piece by piece the traditional Berber life-style is changing as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and much more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June is still the time of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the moving up of whole villages from the valleys to the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These folks were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where all others was: he'd apparently set off a week roughly too early and was now being forced to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so when 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 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 difficult and Jamal made sure that people 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 about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also found that the indigenous fauna with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it's freezing for snakes and scorpions - at least once we were there!
The majority of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness through the initial few days. We were glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes greater than 3000m and also by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers that had 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 the next morning, but as we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough together to descend.
