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Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it really like walking within the High Atlas mountains of Morocco? In June 2010 several us found out when we did a 7 day trek from Imlil with one of Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It absolutely was our first experience with a "guided trek" and that we didn't have any regrets at the conclusion.
To start with, we connect with the team that is made up of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules do the hard work of carrying the camping equipment, a lot of the food required for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed inside a rucksack. Contrary to popular belief, they use only female mules as their temperament is much better suitable for the task. They start working with light loads at approximately twelve months this will let you working duration of 27 - 3 decades. Good mules may cost around 950 and can carry up to 140kg.
Accommodation on the trek varied from camping, refuges or residing in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of your stream or river - perfect for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided protection from heat from the sun and in the night shelter from your cold as well as occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it is still very cold through the night even as 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's a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers along with a large communal area with roaring fire - necessary when we arrived in a snow storm! Our food here was still made by our cook, though we might also buy snacks in the refuge shop. You can find stunning views from the refuge up towards the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One night we stayed inside 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 prepared by our very own cook - a tasty chicken tajine - the chicken being bought in the village. Incidentally, it is easy to 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, as a result of weather Jamal arranged for people to settle a pilgrims' hostel in the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This was an unusual experience as the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive when walking or mule and stay the night time. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel just isn't! Because always we slept on a floor on comfortable sleeping mats which the mules carried. We simply required to provide our personal sleeping-bags - so we were glad we'd brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold at night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who move through, is filled with small stalls and shops selling snacks, soft drinks and souvenirs. It had been almost surreal after the barrenness on most from the trek.
trek high atlas
Our three mules carried our food which was supplemented with fresh produce, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought in the villages in route, even though there aren't shops as you may know them in 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 contained a warm drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to manage at 6.30 each morning! Then we tripped for that morning's trek.
After our departure the muleteers packed everything up, loaded the mules and would overtake us on the trail and stay ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea accompanied by a freshly prepared picnic lunch - filled with blankets to sit down 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 hot 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! Only then do we had the capacity to unwind, explore or talk, often with Jamal about the Berber way of life. Supper was usually soup along with a meat or vegetable tajine prepared in the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled through the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever feasible there is berry (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, until you sneak some 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 would have been very easy to acquire lost - yet we might meet young children herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles from any village. One time a boy aged about 14 had seen 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. When we found its way to a biting wind in the summit he had beaten us and set up in a row the six bottles of Coke he had carried up with him that she hoped we would buy. We did but more out of admiration for his toughness and entrepreneurial spirit than desire for a fizzy drink. He packed away the empties and hang off again down the valley in his Wellingtons.
As we approached the villages we saw the little 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 approaching school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for the cattle, men were tilling the fields. If we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers back to their villages. Piece by piece the original Berber way of life is evolving as tracks are widened and turn into passable to trucks, holes are ready for electricity pylons plus more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June remains the duration of the transhumance for most in high altitude, the upgrading of whole villages from the valleys to the high summer pastures. We had empty villages being gotten ready for summer occupation. These were surrounded by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everyone else was: he had apparently set off a week roughly too quickly and it was now being forced to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so that as we knew we'd meet up with the mules again at lunchtime, we carried only essential items: water (purified stream water), snacks (brought with us from England) and extra clothing as they can be very cold at altitude. Walking poles are incredibly useful and good boots required for not per day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is not difficult and Jamal made certain that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing plenty of time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Also, he took pride and pleasure in explaining 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 with the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured it is too cold for snakes and scorpions - at least once we are there!
Many of us suffered to some degree with altitude sickness during the initial few days. I was glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge we had acclimatised, helped by just about every day climbs over passes of more than 3000m and by camping at altitude. In the refuge we met another party of walkers that had walked up from Imlil in a day, a height gain of about 1500m. They were not experienced or very fit and were suffering with sore feet and altitude sickness. They designed to climb Toubkal the following morning, but as we discovered, they weren't fit or sufficiently and had to descend.
