Roxy999
De BISAWiki
Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it love walking inside the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group 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 we didn't have regrets at the end.
First of all, we meet up with the team that is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they will use only female mules as their temperament is better suited to the work. They start dealing with light loads at approximately twelve months this will let you working lifetime of 27 - 30 years. Good mules could cost around 950 and can 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 through the side of a stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the warmth from the sun as well as in the evening shelter from your cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, will still be snowy at night once we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m underneath 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 found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still prepared by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from the refuge shop. There are stunning views from your refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One evening we stayed in a 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 served by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, you can easily find the villages with electricity as virtually every house features a large white satellite dish about the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of bad weather Jamal arranged for people to settle a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was an unusual experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and remain the night. 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 that your mules carried. We just needed to provide our own sleeping bags - and that we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following the barrenness of most with the trek.
trek in atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages along the way, even though there aren't shops as we know 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 in support of Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and consisted of a hot drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to face at 6.30 each day! Only then do we trigger for your morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and be ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - complete with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch was a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or a Moroccan omelette.
When 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! Only then do we had time to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life-style. Supper was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever possible there was berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some together with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. With out a guide it could happen to be very easy to obtain lost - yet we would meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a new boy aged about 14 saw us from his village within the valley heading for a pass at 3,500m and had climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us towards the top. Once we arrived in a biting wind on the summit he had beaten us and set in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried track of him that they hoped we'd buy. We did but higher productivity of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than wish to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again on the valley in his Wellingtons.
Even as approached the villages we saw the small cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Within 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 the cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Bit by bit the standard Berber life-style is changing as tracks are widened and be passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and much more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains the time of the transhumance for a lot of in high altitude, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys for the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where all others was: he'd apparently tripped per week or so too quickly and it was now having to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we'd catch up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought along with us from England) and further clothing as possible very cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots essential for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal made certain that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in trying to explain to us the Berber life-style. We many userful stuff here regarding their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We also found that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - no less than whenever we were there!
Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the first couple of days. We had been glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes greater than 3000m by camping at altitude. Within the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd walked up from Imlil in a day, a height gain around 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were struggling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal the next morning, but because we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough coupled with to descend.
