Dexter788
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Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts love walking inside the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us discovered when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using 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 end.
To begin with, we encounter the c's which is consists 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 necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Believe it or not, they'll use only female mules as their temperament is best suitable for the task. They begin dealing with light loads around twelve months this will let you working duration of 27 - 30 years. Good mules may cost around 950 and may carry as much as 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of a stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against heat with the sun and in the evening shelter from your cold and even occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it is still snowy during the night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) This is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers and a large communal area with roaring fire - essential once we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here was still being prepared by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks in the refuge shop. There are stunning views from the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One evening we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many on the trek, doesn't have electricity, so lighting and heating (for the showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was prepared 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 nearly every house has a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of rainwater Jamal arranged for people to settle in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was a strange experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking 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 slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We simply needed to provide our very own sleeping-bags - and that we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following your barrenness of many of the trek.
trek in atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages in route, though there aren't shops to be sure 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 just 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 manage 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 on the trail and be ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to sit down on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a warm dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.
Once 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! Then we had the capacity to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to the Berber life style. Supper was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever feasible there is fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, unless you sneak some with you.
The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. With no guide it would happen to be very easy to get lost - yet we might meet young boys herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village within the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us towards the top. When we arrived at a biting wind on the summit he previously beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried up with him that they hoped we'd buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again along the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
Even as approached the villages we had the little 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 approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Piece by piece the original Berber way of life is changing as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons plus more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June is still the duration of the transhumance for most out in the wild, the moving up of whole villages from your valleys towards the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being ready for summer occupation. They were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wanted to ask where all others was: he previously apparently set off weekly or so too soon and it was now being forced to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we might get closer 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 it can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are extremely useful and good boots required for certainly not each day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is simple enough and Jamal ensured that we maintained a leisurely pace, allowing the required time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life style. 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 it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of once we were there!
Most of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness throughout the initial few days. We were glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes of more than 3000m and by camping at altitude. Within the refuge we met another party of walkers who had walked up from Imlil in a single day, a height gain around 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were struggling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal the following morning, but as we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough coupled with to descend.
