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Trek inside the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it enjoy walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping of us learned when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil using one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It was our first experience of a "guided trek" and that we didn't have any regrets by the end.
First of all, we connect with the team that is consists of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food needed for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Believe it or not, they use only female mules his or her temperament is much better suitable for the task. They start working together with light loads at about 12 months and also have a working life of 27 - 30 years. Good mules may cost around 950 and will carry up to 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camp ground sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of the stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against the warmth from the sun and in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, as we learned, it's still very cold through the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed an evening 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 and a large communal area with roaring fire - essential whenever we arrived at 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 back down the valley.
One night we stayed inside a Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about the trek, does not have any electricity, so lighting and heating (for your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought inside the village. Incidentally, it is possible to find the villages with electricity as nearly every house has a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to bad weather Jamal arranged for us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel on the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is a strange experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and remain the night. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Because always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We just necessary to provide our own sleeping bags - so we were glad we had brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, carbonated drinks and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal following the barrenness on most from the trek.
high atlas mountains trek
Our three mules carried our food that was supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages in route, even though there aren't shops to be sure them in 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 only Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an earlier meal and consisted of a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to manage at 6.30 each day! We then trigger for the morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and be ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch would be a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco can be a major world producer), tuna and salad, as well as - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.
When we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, i was always offered mint tea. By the end of the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! We then had time to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber way of life. The evening meal was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled by the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever feasible there is fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some with you.
Most of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and infrequently waymarked. Without a guide it would have been super easy to obtain lost - yet we'd meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. One time a new boy aged about 14 saw us from his village in the valley at risk of a pass at 3,500m coupled with climbed up over 1000m to meet us at the top. When we arrived in a biting wind on the summit he'd beaten us and hang up up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried track of him that she hoped we might buy. We did but higher productivity of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again along the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
Once 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. After we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Piece by piece the original Berber life style is changing as tracks are widened and turn into passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons and much more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June remains the duration of the transhumance for a lot of in the mountains, the going up of whole villages from the valleys for the high summer pastures. We got empty villages being ready for summer occupation. These folks were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where everyone else was: he had apparently set off weekly roughly too early and was now needing to return along 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 with us from England) and further clothing as possible cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots required for certainly not each day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal made sure that people maintained a leisurely pace, allowing the required time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. He also 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 discovered that the indigenous fauna of the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of once we are there!
The majority of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness throughout the initial few days. We had been glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes greater than 3000m and by camping at altitude. Within the refuge we met another party of walkers who had walked up from Imlil in a day, a height gain of about 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were struggling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal the following morning, speculate we discovered, they weren't fit or well enough together to descend.
