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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts really like walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us learned 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 of a "guided trek" so we had no regrets by the end.
To start with, we connect with the team that is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the effort of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they use only female mules as his or her temperament is better suited to the job. They begin working with light loads at approximately one year this will let you working lifetime of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules may cost around 950 and will carry up to 140kg.
Accommodation around the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of the stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from heat with the sun as well as in the evening shelter in the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it's still snowy through the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m beneath 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 once 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 will find stunning views from the refuge up on 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, doesn't have 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 in the village. Incidentally, it is easy to see the villages with electricity as nearly every house features a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of rainwater Jamal arranged for all of us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an odd experience as 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! Here as always we used the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We simply necessary to provide our very own sleeping-bags - and we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It was almost surreal after the barrenness of most with the trek.
trekking 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 in route, though there aren't shops as we know them within 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 early meal and contained 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 morning! Only then do we tripped for your morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and be able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even 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! Then we had time to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber way of life. Supper was usually soup plus 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 berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some together with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and barely waymarked. With no guide it might have been quite simple to obtain lost - yet we would meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. One time a new boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village inside the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us towards the top. When we arrived at a biting wind in the summit he previously beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously carried up with him that they hoped we would buy. We did but more out of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again along the valley in his Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we had 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 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. After we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Bit by bit the standard Berber life-style is evolving as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June is still the time of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages from your valleys for the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being ready 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 everybody else was: he had apparently tripped per week roughly too soon and it was now being forced to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we'd catch up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought around from England) and extra clothing as they can be snowy at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots required for anything but each day trek from Imlil. The walking is not difficult and Jamal made certain that individuals 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 learned a lot about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we found that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it's too cold for snakes and scorpions - no less than whenever we are there!
Many of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness during the first couple of days. We were glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes in excess of 3000m by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who had walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain around 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 because we discovered, they were not fit or good enough and had to descend.
