Charolette71

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Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco

What is it love walking inside the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 several us found out once we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It was our first connection with a "guided trek" so we didn't have regrets at the end.

First of all, we connect with they that's made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Believe it or not, they will use only female mules as their temperament is better suitable for the work. They start working together with light loads at approximately one year and also have a working life of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules can 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 camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of the stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against heat of the sun and in the night shelter from your cold and also occasional rain. In June, once we learned, will still be cold through the night as we camped above 2,000m.

We stayed per night in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m below 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 - essential when we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still being served by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from the refuge shop. There are 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 around the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is easy to see the villages with electricity as virtually every house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.

On another occasion, because of bad weather Jamal arranged for all of us to settle a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was an unusual experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and turn into the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Because always we slept on the floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We simply necessary to provide our personal sleeping-bags - so we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It was almost surreal following the barrenness of most of the trek.

high atlas mountains trek

Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages along the way, even though there aren't shops as we know them in 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 just Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was a young meal and was comprised of a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This was enough to manage at 6.30 each day! Then we 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 become able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch was 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 were always offered mint tea. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! We then had time to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber way of life. Supper was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever feasible there was fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some with you.

The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and barely waymarked. With no guide it could happen to be quite simple to acquire lost - yet we might meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a new boy aged about 14 saw 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. Whenever we found its way to a biting wind at the summit he previously beaten us and set up in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously carried track of him that they hoped we might 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 up off again on the valley in the Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we got 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. Young kids 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. If we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Bit by bit the standard Berber life-style is changing as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons and much more villages are linked to a mains supply.

But June remains to be the time of the transhumance for a lot of in high altitude, the going up of whole villages from your valleys for the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These were flanked by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everyone else was: he had apparently trigger per week roughly too early and it was now having to return down 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 extra clothing as they can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots needed for anything but per day trek from Imlil. The walking is not difficult and Jamal made certain that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing the required time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he 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 found that the indigenous fauna with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - at least once we were there!

Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the first few days. We were glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes in excess of 3000m and also by camping at altitude. In 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 intended to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they were not fit or good enough coupled with to descend.