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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts enjoy walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us discovered 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" and that we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To begin with, we encounter the c's that is composed 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 inside a rucksack. Surprisingly, they'll use only female mules his or her temperament is much better fitted to the work. They begin working with light loads around one year this will let you working life of 27 - 30 years. Good mules could cost around 950 and may carry up to 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually through the side of your stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the heat with the sun and also in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it's still cold during the night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m beneath 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 when we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here had been made by our cook, though we could also buy snacks in the refuge shop. There are stunning views from your refuge up on the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One night we stayed in a 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 prepared by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is possible to spot the villages with electricity as virtually every house includes a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to weather Jamal arranged for people to settle in a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was an odd experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and turn into the night time. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Because always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We only required to provide our own sleeping bags - so we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness of many with the trek.
trek high atlas
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages along the way, even though there aren't shops to be sure them inside 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 only Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an early meal and was comprised of a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to face at 6.30 in the morning! We then trigger for the morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and become ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to sit down on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is really 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.
Whenever we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we had been always offered mint tea. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Then we had the capacity to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup along with a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled by the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever possible there was clearly 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 barely waymarked. With out a 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 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 satisfy us at the top. Whenever we arrived at a biting wind on the summit he had beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried track of him that they hoped we would buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again along the valley in his Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we got 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 walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut in the fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a massive tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Little by little the traditional Berber life style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons and much more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June is still the duration 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 gotten ready for summer occupation. They were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where everyone else was: he'd apparently set off weekly roughly too early and it was now being forced to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we might get closer the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought around from England) and extra clothing as it can be cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots required for anything but each day trek from Imlil. The walking is simple enough and Jamal made certain that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber way of life. We many userful stuff here regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we discovered that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it's freezing for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of once we were there!
Most of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness through the initial few days. I was glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes in excess of 3000m by camping at altitude. Within the refuge we met another party of walkers who 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 these morning, speculate we discovered, they were not fit or good enough together to descend.
