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Trek in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
The facts enjoy walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 a small grouping 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 connection with a "guided trek" so we had no regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we meet up with the c's that is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules carry out the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, the majority of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they use only female mules as his or her temperament is best fitted to the task. They start dealing with light loads at about 12 months and have a working life of 27 - Thirty years. Good mules may cost around 950 and will carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or staying in a Berber village house. The camping 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 protection from heat from the sun and also in the night shelter from the cold as well as occasional rain. In June, even as learned, will still be snowy during the night even as camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night within 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 plus a large communal area with roaring fire - necessary whenever we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still prepared by our cook, though we might also buy snacks in the refuge shop. You will find stunning views from the refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back down the valley.
Recognized 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 your showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was served by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is possible to spot the villages with electricity as nearly every house features a large white satellite dish on the flat roof, clearly visible when you approach the village.
On another occasion, due to weather Jamal arranged for us to settle in a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was a strange experience because the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking 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 a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We just needed to provide our personal sleeping bags - and we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it will always be cold through the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness on most with the trek.
trek high atlas
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh food, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages along the way, though there aren't shops as we know 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 in support of Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was an early meal and was comprised of a fashionable drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. This was enough to manage at 6.30 each day! Only then do we trigger for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us around the trail and become 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 is really a major world producer), tuna and salad, and in addition - Lahcen's speciality - a warm dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or even a Moroccan omelette.
Whenever we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, we were always offered mint tea. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Then we had time to wind down, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life-style. The evening meal was usually soup plus a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from your basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently on a small gas stove. Whenever possible there was clearly berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, if you don't sneak some with you.
A lot of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. Without a guide it could are already super easy to acquire lost - yet we'd meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a 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 meet us towards the top. When we found its way to a biting wind on the summit he previously beaten us and set up in a row the six bottles of Coke he'd carried on top of him that they hoped we might buy. We did but more out of popularity of his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire 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 tiny cultivated fields, with crops of potatoes, maize, tomatoes and oats and wheat. Inside the fertile valleys were orchards of cherry, walnut and apple. Young children were herding goats or walking to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut in the fields for that cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw an enormous tipper lorry carrying about forty workers returning to their villages. Piece by piece the original Berber life-style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and become passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons plus more villages are attached to a mains supply.
But June is still the time of the transhumance for many out in the wild, the moving up of whole villages from the valleys to the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These were flanked by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met wondered where all others was: he had apparently tripped per week roughly too soon and was now being forced to return along the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we'd get closer the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought along with us from England) and extra clothing as it can be snowy at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots essential for certainly not a day trek from Imlil. The walking is not so difficult and Jamal ensured that individuals 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 learned a lot about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! Additionally we learned that the indigenous fauna with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is freezing for snakes and scorpions - a minimum of when we are there!
Many of us suffered to varying degrees with altitude sickness through the first few days. We were glad that by the time we reached the Toubkal refuge there were acclimatised, helped by almost daily climbs over passes of more than 3000m and also 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 around 1500m. They weren't experienced or very fit and were battling with sore feet and altitude sickness. They intended to climb Toubkal these morning, but because we discovered, they weren't fit or good enough together to descend.
