Seven Days in the High Atlas
we were well supported by a Morrocan Berber guide, Mohamed, six muleteers and their mules and our cook, Ahmed. Three of the muleteers were also called Mohamed.
Each day we started with a very full breakfast of (to much food) oats and fruit, flatbreads or local crumpets. tea coffee and juice,eggs and olives, and honey and apricot jam.
We packed our dufflebag which then went on a mule and we walked with our daypack of about 4 kilos. We took, water, rain and cold gear as well as hot gear (hats and sunscreen), hand sanitiser and walking poles.
There were only four of us as a 50 something couple from Melbourne left on Day 0 to return home to a sick father. Our companions were a 73 year old lady from the midlands in England and a 62 year old from Sydney's northern beaches. Both were exceptionally fit for their ages and so their was no one but me to slow us down. Clare fitted in beautifully.
Mahomed, our guide, was an inspiring leader. He was about 30, from a remote village in the Middle Atlas Mountains, and he spoke amazing English. He also had an exceptional knowledge of all things Morrocan, world geography, politics and culture. He had left his village as an eight year old with one other student, receiving a scholarship to study in the nearest town. he then left there to study in Marracesh. With any other background he would probably have become a doctor or a lawyer.
He helped us to understand Ramadan and many aspects of Islam with a viewpoint that always acknowledged that their were other equal viewpoints.
The days walking usually started about 8am and finished about 4pm. We had short morning break and a special lunch. We would round a corner or reach a pass and in front of us (often in a walnut grove) would be a table with cloth, plates and glasses and four chairs. Food was abundent, lentil currys, salads, very sweet melons and tea, coffee or mint tea. We felt very spoilt.
The walking was spectacular, though rigorous. We usually climbed between 500 and a thousand metres and also decended similar amounts. We walked up fertile valleys with snowmelt streams racing down the mountain sides and along the valley floor. We passed through and stayed at typical Berber villages built into the mountainsides , flat rooved houses built out of the local earth...but with satelite dishes on every roof in the larger villages.
The hillsides were rocky and barren while the bottoms of some valleys were green oasises. Soil was gathered using rock terraces and collected animal dung. Water was channelled and controlled using stone or concete aquaducts which sometimes ran several kilometres. The result of this continuous human labour was green paradises of about 100 to 200 metres wide by up to a kilometre long.
When we finished for the day we either camped (4) or used local Gite's (3). The Gite's varied from an empty building (stone shell) with doors and windows and a quite comfortable large house with rugs everywhere and electricity. At one Gite we had a Hamam, which was a sitting shower, using a water scoop for hot water in a stone room with a heated floor. It was exceptional, given we were sweaty, dirty and cold. We paid 20 dirhams each (about $2) and we learnt that locals also use it but they have to supply their own wood and water.
Camping was not a great hardship. Our tents were put up for us and we had an eating tent, toilet tent and shower tent. The shower tent was a metre square with a small stool. We took a bucket of water and a scoop. It was not as popular as the Hamam.
Each day we started with a very full breakfast of (to much food) oats and fruit, flatbreads or local crumpets. tea coffee and juice,eggs and olives, and honey and apricot jam.
We packed our dufflebag which then went on a mule and we walked with our daypack of about 4 kilos. We took, water, rain and cold gear as well as hot gear (hats and sunscreen), hand sanitiser and walking poles.
There were only four of us as a 50 something couple from Melbourne left on Day 0 to return home to a sick father. Our companions were a 73 year old lady from the midlands in England and a 62 year old from Sydney's northern beaches. Both were exceptionally fit for their ages and so their was no one but me to slow us down. Clare fitted in beautifully.
Mahomed, our guide, was an inspiring leader. He was about 30, from a remote village in the Middle Atlas Mountains, and he spoke amazing English. He also had an exceptional knowledge of all things Morrocan, world geography, politics and culture. He had left his village as an eight year old with one other student, receiving a scholarship to study in the nearest town. he then left there to study in Marracesh. With any other background he would probably have become a doctor or a lawyer.
He helped us to understand Ramadan and many aspects of Islam with a viewpoint that always acknowledged that their were other equal viewpoints.
The days walking usually started about 8am and finished about 4pm. We had short morning break and a special lunch. We would round a corner or reach a pass and in front of us (often in a walnut grove) would be a table with cloth, plates and glasses and four chairs. Food was abundent, lentil currys, salads, very sweet melons and tea, coffee or mint tea. We felt very spoilt.
The walking was spectacular, though rigorous. We usually climbed between 500 and a thousand metres and also decended similar amounts. We walked up fertile valleys with snowmelt streams racing down the mountain sides and along the valley floor. We passed through and stayed at typical Berber villages built into the mountainsides , flat rooved houses built out of the local earth...but with satelite dishes on every roof in the larger villages.
The hillsides were rocky and barren while the bottoms of some valleys were green oasises. Soil was gathered using rock terraces and collected animal dung. Water was channelled and controlled using stone or concete aquaducts which sometimes ran several kilometres. The result of this continuous human labour was green paradises of about 100 to 200 metres wide by up to a kilometre long.
When we finished for the day we either camped (4) or used local Gite's (3). The Gite's varied from an empty building (stone shell) with doors and windows and a quite comfortable large house with rugs everywhere and electricity. At one Gite we had a Hamam, which was a sitting shower, using a water scoop for hot water in a stone room with a heated floor. It was exceptional, given we were sweaty, dirty and cold. We paid 20 dirhams each (about $2) and we learnt that locals also use it but they have to supply their own wood and water.
Camping was not a great hardship. Our tents were put up for us and we had an eating tent, toilet tent and shower tent. The shower tent was a metre square with a small stool. We took a bucket of water and a scoop. It was not as popular as the Hamam.
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