Jerilyn287
De BISAWiki
Trek within the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
What is it love walking in 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 and among Toubkal-Trekking.com guides, whose name is Jamal. It had been our first experience of a "guided trek" and that we had no regrets by the end.
To start with, we encounter they which is composed of the guide, a cook, and mules and muleteers. The mules perform the effort of carrying the camping equipment, most of the food necessary for the trek and our heavy luggage, preferably packed in the rucksack. Believe it or not, they use only female mules as his or her temperament is better suited to the job. They start working with light loads around 12 months and have a working lifetime of 27 - 30 years. Good mules can cost around 950 and can carry approximately 140kg.
Accommodation about the trek varied from camping, refuges or remaining in a Berber village house. The camp sites were often idyllic, usually from the side of your stream or river - well suited for summer swimming - and included a dining tent which provided defense against heat of the sun and also in the night shelter from your cold and also occasional rain. In June, once we learned, it's still cold during the night as we camped above 2,000m.
We stayed per night inside the Toubkal refuge which at 3207m is approximately 1000m beneath the summit of Toubkal (4167m) It's a large, modern refuge with dormitories of varying sizes, good showers plus a large communal area with roaring fire - necessary once we arrived at a snow storm! Our food here was still being served by our cook, though we're able to also buy snacks in the refuge shop. There are stunning views from your refuge up for the Toubkal summit and back the valley.
One night we stayed in the Berber village house in Amsouzerte Village. This village, like many about the trek, has no electricity, so lighting and heating (for that showers) was by bottled gas. Again our food was made by our 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 has a large white satellite dish around the flat roof, clearly visible as you approach the village.
On another occasion, as a result of weather Jamal arranged for people to sleep in a pilgrims' hostel at the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. This is a strange experience since the shrine attracts many pilgrims who arrive on foot or mule and remain the night. The shrine is barred to non-Muslims, but fortunately the hostel is not! Because always we used a floor on comfortable sleeping mats that the mules carried. We only required to provide our very own sleeping bags - so we were glad there were brought warm ones. At altitude it is always cold during the night. Sidi Chamarouch, due to the pilgrims and trekkers who go through, is stuffed with small stalls and shops selling snacks, sodas and souvenirs. It absolutely was almost surreal after the barrenness on most of the trek.
trekking atlas mountains
Our three mules carried our food that has been supplemented with fresh foods, particularly eggs, fresh bread and meat, bought inside the villages in route, even though there aren't shops as you may know 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 only Lahcen spoke some French.
Breakfast was a young meal and contained a hot drink (tea, coffee with dried milk), bread, jam, chocolate and cheese spreads and honey. It was enough to face 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 become ready to welcome us, around midday, with mint tea then a freshly prepared picnic lunch - detailed with blankets to take a seat on! Lunch was obviously a cold buffet, typically pasta, sardines (Morocco is really a major world producer), tuna and salad, and also - Lahcen's speciality - a hot dish of potato, tomato and chick peas or perhaps a Moroccan omelette.
Whenever we finished our day's walk, usually mid afternoon, i was always offered mint tea. After the trek our initial enthusiasm for mint tea had waned! Then we had the capacity to relax, explore or talk, often with Jamal concerning the Berber life style. Supper was usually soup and a meat or vegetable tajine prepared from the basic ingredients (potatoes and carrots were peeled from the cooks) and cooked very efficiently over a small gas stove. Whenever you can there is fresh fruit (melon, oranges). No alcohol though, unless you sneak some with you.
The majority of the walking we did was along narrow stony tracks, sometimes very faint and rarely waymarked. With no guide it could are already very easy to acquire lost - yet we might meet young kids herding goats in remote valleys or on high peaks, miles through the village. On one occasion 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 fulfill us at the very top. Once we found its way to a biting wind on the summit he had beaten us and hang up in a row the six bottles of Coke he previously carried on top of him that she hoped we might 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 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 travelling to school, women were carrying heavy bundles of fodder cut from your fields for your cattle, men were tilling the fields. Once we saw a huge tipper lorry carrying about forty workers to their villages. Bit by bit the original Berber life-style is beginning to change as tracks are widened and turn into passable to trucks, holes have decided for electricity pylons plus more villages are linked to a mains supply.
But June remains to be the duration of the transhumance for many in the mountains, the going up of whole villages from your valleys for the high summer pastures. We saw empty villages being prepared for summer occupation. These were encompassed by mountain pastures and extensive, old networks of irrigation ditches. One shepherd we met was wondering where everybody else was: he had apparently tripped per week or so too soon and was now needing to return down the valley!
We carried only day packs so when we knew we might catch 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 snowy at altitude. Walking poles are very useful and good boots essential for not each day trek from Imlil. The walking itself is simple enough and Jamal made certain that individuals maintained a leisurely pace, allowing sufficient time for stops, photo opportunities and scenery gazing. Younger crowd took pride and pleasure in explaining to us the Berber life style. We many userful stuff here about their language, culture, religion, agriculture, family life - and mules! We learned that the indigenous fauna from the area includes foxes, rabbits, wild goats and squirrel, but were assured that it's too cold for snakes and scorpions - no less than once we are there!
The majority of us suffered to some extent with altitude sickness throughout the first couple of days. We were glad that once we reached the Toubkal refuge we'd 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 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 because we discovered, they were not fit or well enough and had to descend.
