I looked at my heavy trekking bag and wondered if they would let me through at Heathrow to board the plane to Morocco and a new 3 week adventure in the wilderness of the Atlas Mountains.
My first group-experience - and I was unsure just how this would all pan out ...
Our High-Atlas adventure began with an unscheduled stop in Casablanca and then onwards to Marrakech where we spent the first night in a hotel in the new part of town amongst dusty building work and new developments at every corner in the traditional pink-tone that gives Marrakesh it's name: Pink City.
The next morning we set off in a bus to a village at the foothills of Toubkal called Imlil - our starting point of the trek. Whilst we were offloading our bags to be put on mules, we were immediately surrounded by dealers with all sorts of goods, from jewelry to fake watches and more. But all we wanted was to get on the way and out of this diesel-smelling, dusty place and breath some mountain air...
16 people from all walks of life and all ages (18-66 to be precise) set off chatting like old friends as we hiked about 1 hour to our first Gite near the village of Arund - where we got a first glimpse of Jebel Toubkal with 4167m --- highest mountain of North Africa and aim of our trek.
Reaching the gite, we all gathered on the terrasse and had a first look at what was ahead... a stunning scenery enveloped in clouds awaited us.. and there he was ... just about visible .... to me Toubkal looked illusive, so very far away and surrounded by steep mountains and gorges. I didn't dare to think of the first day of real hiking, and felt very unfit compared to the hard-core mountaineers we had in the group.
We were lucky - the group got on immediately and the bond only grew stronger over the next 2 weeks of camping in the wilderness and motivating each other up that steep bit, or walking behind with some who were struggling (like me on day 1 when I got a stitch and thought my lungs would explode that last bit) - Thanks Pete and Richard for hanging with me and nudging me up that last incline!!!! )
Our experienced Berber guide (now family member and friend) was a treasure and even though he practiced Ramadan - was never short of a smile or a few jokes, bless...!
A few days in Marrakech
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