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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it enjoy walking inside the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group of us found out once 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 of a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets by the end.
To begin with, we encounter the team which is consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Surprisingly, they use only female mules as his or her temperament is better suited to the job. They begin dealing with light loads around one year this will let you working lifetime of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules may cost around 950 and may carry up to 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camp ground sites were often idyllic, usually through the side of the stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against heat with the sun and in the night shelter in the cold and even occasional rain. In June, even as learned, will still be very cold at night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is all about 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It's 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 prepared by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You will find stunning views in the refuge up on the Toubkal summit and down again the valley.
One night we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many around the trek, doesn't have electricity, so lighting and heating (for the showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is possible to see the villages with electricity as virtually every house includes a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of rainwater Jamal arranged for people to settle in a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is an odd experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and turn into the evening. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we used the ground on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We only needed to provide our very own sleeping-bags - so we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following the barrenness of most from the trek.
high atlas mountains trek
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages in route, even though there aren't shops as you may 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 in support of Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and was comprised of a fashionable 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 around the trail and stay ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is really a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a fashionable dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
When 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 unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal in regards to 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 over a small gas stove. Whenever feasible there was berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, unless you sneak some along with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and barely waymarked. With no guide it would have been quite simple to obtain lost - yet we would meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. On one occasion a boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village in the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m together climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us towards the top. When we found its way to a biting wind on the summit he previously beaten us and hang in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously carried track of him which he hoped we'd buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again down the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
Even as approached the villages we had the small cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. In the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young children were herding goats or approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a huge 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 become passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains the period of the transhumance for a lot of out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These folks were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where everyone else was: he'd apparently trigger a week or so too quickly and was now needing to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we would catch up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought around from England) and additional clothing as they can be cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots needed for anything but per day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal ensured that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life style. We many userful stuff here about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we discovered that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of whenever we are there!
Most of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness through the first couple of days. I was glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes in excess of 3000m and by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers who had walked up from Imlil in one day, a height gain of about 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal these morning, speculate we discovered, they weren't fit or good enough together to descend.
