Vanessa12
De BISAWiki
Trek in 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 found out once we did a 7 day trek from Imlil with 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 regrets at the end.
To begin with, we meet up with they which is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the effort of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Believe it or not, they will use only female mules as his or her temperament is much better suited to the task. They begin working with light loads at about 12 months this will let you working duration of 27 - 30 years. Good mules could cost around 950 and can carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camp 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 protection from the warmth from the sun and in the night shelter in the cold and also occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it's still snowy during the night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 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 - much needed when we found its way to a snow storm! Our food here was still being made by our cook, though we might also buy snacks from the refuge shop. You will find stunning views in 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 around the trek, does not have any 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 in the village. Incidentally, you can easily see the villages with electricity as nearly 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 bad weather Jamal arranged for us to settle a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is a strange experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and turn into the evening. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Here as always we used the ground on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We just required to provide our own sleeping-bags - and we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it is usually cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, as a result of pilgrims and trekkers who pass through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following your barrenness on most from the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages on the way, though there aren't shops to be sure them within 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 and just Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was a young meal and contained a warm 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! Then we 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 become able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to take a seat 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 perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
When we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we were always offered mint tea. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Then we had time to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life-style. The evening meal was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever you can there was clearly 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 might happen to be very easy 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 boy aged about 14 had seen us from his village inside the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to satisfy us at the very top. Whenever we arrived at a biting wind in the summit he previously beaten us and hang in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried up with him that she hoped we might buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than wish to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and set off again on the valley in his Wellingtons.
Even as approached the villages we saw the tiny cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Inside the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Small children were herding goats or walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Little by little the standard Berber life style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and turn into passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June is still the time of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys towards the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These folks were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wanted to ask where everyone else was: he had apparently set off a week approximately too early and it was now being forced to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs and as we knew we might 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 it can be cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots essential for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not so difficult and Jamal made sure that we 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 learned a lot 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 that it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - no less than whenever we are there!
Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness throughout 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 day, a height gain of approximately 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They meant to climb Toubkal the next morning, speculate we discovered, they were not fit or good enough and had to descend.
