Luvenia98
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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it love walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us learned once 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" so we didn't have any regrets by the end.
First of all, we connect with the c's that's 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 necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they will use only female mules as his or her temperament is much better fitted to the job. They begin working with light loads at approximately 12 months and also have a working life of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules can cost around 950 and may carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camping ground sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of your stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the warmth with the sun as well as in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, it is still cold through the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night in the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m underneath 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 whenever we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here had been made by our cook, though we could also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You will find stunning views from your refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One night we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about the trek, doesn't have 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 within the village. Incidentally, it is easy to find the villages with electricity as virtually every house features a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of bad weather Jamal arranged for us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an odd experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and stay the night time. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Here as always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We simply necessary to provide our own sleeping-bags - and that we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is full of small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It was almost surreal following the barrenness on most from the trek.
high atlas mountains trek
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages in route, even though there aren't shops as we know them inside 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 in support of 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 handle at 6.30 in the morning! Then we tripped for the morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around 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 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 perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
Once 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! We then had the capacity to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber life style. The evening meal was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled by the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever possible there was berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some along with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With out a guide it might happen to be quite simple to acquire lost - yet we'd meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from the village. On one occasion a new boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village within the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to fulfill us towards the top. Once we arrived in a biting wind on the summit he had beaten us and hang up up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried up with him which he hoped we'd buy. We did but higher productivity of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again along the valley in the Wellingtons.
Once we approached the villages we saw 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 your fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Piece by piece the traditional Berber way of life is beginning to change as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons plus more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June is still the duration of the transhumance for a lot of in the mountains, the upgrading of whole villages from your valleys to the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being ready for summer occupation. They were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everybody else was: he'd apparently set off a week roughly too quickly and was now needing to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we might get closer the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought with us from England) and extra clothing as they can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots required for anything but a day trek from Imlil. The walking is simple enough and Jamal made certain 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 their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also discovered 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 - no less than once we are there!
Most 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 we'd acclimatised, helped by daily climbs over passes of more than 3000m and 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 of about 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal the following morning, speculate we discovered, they were not fit or well enough together to descend.
