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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it love walking in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a group 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 connection with a "guided trek" and we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To begin with, we meet up with the team that is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Surprisingly, they'll use only female mules as his or her temperament is best suited to the task. They start working with light loads at about 12 months and also have a working lifetime of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules may cost around 950 and will carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camp ground sites were often idyllic, usually by the side of a stream or river - ideal for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against heat from the sun and in the night shelter from the cold and also occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it is still cold during the night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed a night within the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is about 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It is a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers plus a large communal area with roaring fire - essential whenever we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still served by our cook, though we could also buy snacks from your refuge shop. You can find stunning views from the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.
Recognized we stayed in 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 prepared by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought within the village. Incidentally, you can easily spot the villages with electricity as nearly every house includes a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible while you approach the village.
On another occasion, because of bad weather Jamal arranged for us to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. It was a strange experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive by walking or mule and stay the evening. The shrine itself is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel isn't! Because always we slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that your mules carried. We just necessary to provide our very own sleeping bags - and we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, because of the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal following the barrenness of many with the trek.
atlas mountains trekking
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought within the villages along the way, even though there aren't shops to be sure 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 and just Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was a young meal and consisted of a fashionable drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This is enough to handle at 6.30 each morning! Then we trigger for your morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us about the trail and be able to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to sit 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 warm dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.
Once 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! We then had time to unwind, 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 from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever possible there was clearly fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some with you.
The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. Without a guide it would have been quite simple to get lost - yet we'd meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a young boy aged about 14 saw 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 found its way to a biting wind in the summit he'd beaten us and set up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried track of him that they hoped we'd buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire to have a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang up off again down the valley as part of his Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we had the tiny 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 travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from the fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Little by little the standard Berber way of life is beginning to change as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes are prepared for electricity pylons and more villages are connected to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the duration of the transhumance for many in the mountains, the moving up of whole villages from your valleys towards the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. They were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where everybody else was: he had apparently tripped per week approximately too quickly and was now having to return on the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we might get closer the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought around from England) and extra clothing as it can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots required for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking itself 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 explaining to us the Berber life-style. We learned a lot regarding 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 it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - no less than once we are there!
Most of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness through the first few days. We had been glad that when we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes in excess of 3000m and by camping at altitude. Inside the refuge we met another party of walkers who'd 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 intended to climb Toubkal these morning, speculate we discovered, they were not fit or good enough and had to descend.
