Landon57
De BISAWiki
Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it really like 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 with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first connection with a "guided trek" and that we didn't have any regrets by the end.
To start with, we connect with the team which is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Believe it or not, they will use only female mules his or her temperament is best suitable for the job. They begin working together 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 approximately 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing 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 from the cold and also occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it's still cold during the night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 1000m underneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) This 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 had been prepared by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks in the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from the refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.
One evening we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many around the trek, does not have any electricity, so lighting and heating (for the showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our personal cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is easy to spot the villages with electricity as virtually every house has a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of weather Jamal arranged for people to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an unusual experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and stay the evening. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Because always we slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We only needed to provide our very own sleeping-bags - so we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following the barrenness on most from the trek.
trek high atlas
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages along the way, though there aren't shops to be sure them within 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 just Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an early meal and consisted of a hot drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to handle at 6.30 in the morning! Then we 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 stay prepared to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to sit on! Lunch was obviously a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - 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. 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 about the Berber way of life. The evening meal was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on the small gas stove. Whenever you can there is 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 rarely waymarked. Without a guide it would happen to be very easy to obtain lost - yet we'd meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through 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 fulfill us at the top. Whenever we arrived at a biting wind on the summit he previously beaten us and set up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried on top of him that they hoped we would buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again down the valley in his Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we saw the tiny cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. In the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young kids were herding goats or travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Bit by bit the original Berber way of life is evolving as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and much more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June is still the period of the transhumance for many in the mountains, the going up of whole villages from the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being ready for summer occupation. They were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where all others was: he previously apparently set off weekly approximately too soon and was now needing to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we'd meet 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 very cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots required for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not so difficult and Jamal made certain that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. He also took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber way of life. We learned a lot regarding language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We learned that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it's too cold for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of once we were there!
Most of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness throughout the initial few days. We were glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes in excess of 3000m by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd 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 following morning, speculate we discovered, they weren't fit or sufficiently coupled with to descend.
