High High Atlas

   From the sublime to the sublime... Just a few short days ago I was sipping champagne with Moroccan High society at the opening launch of the Kings new luxury apartment and beach resort Foster designed masterplan and today I’m eating tagine and cous cous in a remote mountain refuge with several Berber tribesmen and their mules. The last few days have been  such a contrast to say the least. We arrived in the High Atlas mountains on Tuesday and have been out trekking in the mountains for the last few days, my calves are now super defined and i no longer have any feeling in from the waist down. We have walked through rain snow and gale force winds, crossed flooded rivers on plank bridges and slept on hardmud floors in stone huts clinging to the sides of steep valleys. It’s been great! The views are fantastic and the villages are like something from biblical times.

Our guide and muleteers where wonderful and kept us safe and fed throughout the trip always smiling and egging us on even when we were on the point of giving in. I would recommend this to everyone, though you do have to be reasonably fit to cope with the altitude and the toilets! I’m sure Adam will give you the real low down ... Dawn xx     

   Start of the journey was Imlil and the Hotel Etoile de Toukbal then over tizi Tamatart (the pass where we had lunch on the first day) and on to Wansakra where we spent the first night. The next day we passed through the villages of Tamgist and Amasakro,and spending the second night in Imaskar. On the third day we went through Imi warlad, Wawsaft  and  lunched in a lock-up garage at Agarsiwal  before getting back  to Imlil finally.

Road to Imlil –

We had organised a trek including a guide two mules and two muleteers, our plan was four days of walking in the high atlas mountains visiting Berber villages. The next day we drove 175 miles, numerous culinary stops featured a fantastic tajine in a one horse town which featured cafes or stores selling fertiliser. Morocco is incredibly green especially at this time of year. There is a band  of land about 50 miles wide from the top of morocco not to the bottom but for at least 300 miles. I think we were overcharged for the Tajine (a fiver) however it was worth it. A pit stop in Marrakech which we planned to explore on our return leg, and then onto Imlil which was to be a start point for our trek. We arrived at about 5.00pm Imlil is a small village surrounded by steep mountains including the second highest peak in Africa ( Jebel Toubkal 4165 m).It really was incredible the village was surrounded by snow covered mountains and it was cold....very cold. The hotel was great very ornate and we were the only guests in the hotel. The season hadn’t yet started, more sensible people wait a few more weeks for the weather to pick up. However a roaring fire a even bigger Tajine and we were content. Like most great experiences in my life, i think i have benefitted by not thinking things through. If we had we would not probably have come at this time of year. Which would of meant we would of missed a fantastic time.