Enjoying our accomplishment at the summit
After a nice relax near the beach, we were ready to tackle a mountain... Jebel Toubkal to be exact. At 4167 meters, Jebel Toubkal, in the High Atlas Mountains of Southern Morocco, is the highest mountain in Northern Africa. While apparently a lovely climb during the summer months, a late-fall or spring climb here requires lots of special equipment including crampons, ice axes, etc., and a winter climb is near impossible except for professionals. Good thing for us that it is summer!
Back in Marrakesh, we set out for the little town of Imlil, where we would base our trek out of. As has become standard, the journey required some patience and effort. However, resigned to finally getting a handle on bargaining and traveling like a local, we took a jam-packed collective taxi with 7 people (including the driver) jammed into a normal Merceded sedan, bound for Asni. In Asni, we changed taxis for the final 30 minutes to Imlil. But you don't go anywhere in Morocco for 10 minutes and not have a story to tell...
On arrival to the taxi stand, we were immediately bombarded by a couple of touts full of advice.
TOUT: "No, sorry. There are no collective taxis to Imlil from Asni."
US: "Actually, we are positive there are collectives that run to Imlil."
TOUT: "Hmm, yes but they are 150 dirhams (about $22), but I have room available in the back of my (dodgy) pickup for 30 dh each. We will leave in 30 minutes, please come sit and have tea."
US: (Thinking to ourselves) Yeah, we've heard this all before, and we're finally smartening up to it all. "We'll just wait over here and see if one of the collectives that doesn't stop here magically turns up..."
TOUT: (Not about to be dissuaded, follows over and continues to flap his gums about something, but we had stopped listening since a collective was pulling up.)
US: "Well look at that. Miracles do happen..."
TOUT: "Yes, but it will be expensive."
US: (To collective driver) "How much to Imlil?"
DRIVER: "20 dirhams each."
At this point, you would think that the tout would finally just leave us alone as we had clearly proven him a big, fat liar however, not to be outdone, he then asked us for money because he had been so helpful in bargaining down the fare to 20 dh!!! Hahaha. Fat chance. You didn't do anything. We asked the fare, the driver answered. End of story. (Refer back to Marrakesh - the land of snake charmers, henna artists and touts for my general feel on the Moroccan people we have encountered.)
As we were putting our luggage into the trunk, another tout was hassling us saying it was $20 Australian dollars (not dirham). Having had enough, I looked at him and made a remark about not having any AU dollars, but then again, neither did he. This sassy little remark turned out to be a mistake. The next 5 minutes were spent with me feeling very uncomfortable while this very loud tout saying "Ooh, sexy Australian woman. She so sexy, etc." I jumped in the front of the car, encouraged Kyle to get in with me and waited the final minutes until we finally got out of there.
Thirty minutes later, we arrived into Imlil. We were very pleased with ourselves as we had avoided every attempt made to scam us until... dun, dun, dunnnn... Imlil. Our main problem here was that we had a guide with hotels listed but no map. So when we were approached by someone with a hotel available, we knew to say no, but he insisted it was a certain one in the Lonely Planet. We were tired, hungry and ready to get there, so we caved. (Our first mistake of the day.)
The man stated that his hotel was a 15 minute walk out of town, but he was happy to offer a free donkey to carry our packs. Well, ok.... So after a 20 minute walk with a poor donkey hauling our crap, we walked down a little, unmarked driveway, across a small stream and through an apple orchard to reach our hotel. Does anyone else see a red flag here??
Map outlining the possible routes
Back in Marrakesh, we set out for the little town of Imlil, where we would base our trek out of. As has become standard, the journey required some patience and effort. However, resigned to finally getting a handle on bargaining and traveling like a local, we took a jam-packed collective taxi with 7 people (including the driver) jammed into a normal Merceded sedan, bound for Asni. In Asni, we changed taxis for the final 30 minutes to Imlil. But you don't go anywhere in Morocco for 10 minutes and not have a story to tell...
On arrival to the taxi stand, we were immediately bombarded by a couple of touts full of advice.
TOUT: "No, sorry. There are no collective taxis to Imlil from Asni."
US: "Actually, we are positive there are collectives that run to Imlil."
TOUT: "Hmm, yes but they are 150 dirhams (about $22), but I have room available in the back of my (dodgy) pickup for 30 dh each. We will leave in 30 minutes, please come sit and have tea."
US: (Thinking to ourselves) Yeah, we've heard this all before, and we're finally smartening up to it all. "We'll just wait over here and see if one of the collectives that doesn't stop here magically turns up..."
TOUT: (Not about to be dissuaded, follows over and continues to flap his gums about something, but we had stopped listening since a collective was pulling up.)
US: "Well look at that. Miracles do happen..."
TOUT: "Yes, but it will be expensive."
US: (To collective driver) "How much to Imlil?"
DRIVER: "20 dirhams each."
At this point, you would think that the tout would finally just leave us alone as we had clearly proven him a big, fat liar however, not to be outdone, he then asked us for money because he had been so helpful in bargaining down the fare to 20 dh!!! Hahaha. Fat chance. You didn't do anything. We asked the fare, the driver answered. End of story. (Refer back to Marrakesh - the land of snake charmers, henna artists and touts for my general feel on the Moroccan people we have encountered.)
As we were putting our luggage into the trunk, another tout was hassling us saying it was $20 Australian dollars (not dirham). Having had enough, I looked at him and made a remark about not having any AU dollars, but then again, neither did he. This sassy little remark turned out to be a mistake. The next 5 minutes were spent with me feeling very uncomfortable while this very loud tout saying "Ooh, sexy Australian woman. She so sexy, etc." I jumped in the front of the car, encouraged Kyle to get in with me and waited the final minutes until we finally got out of there.
Thirty minutes later, we arrived into Imlil. We were very pleased with ourselves as we had avoided every attempt made to scam us until... dun, dun, dunnnn... Imlil. Our main problem here was that we had a guide with hotels listed but no map. So when we were approached by someone with a hotel available, we knew to say no, but he insisted it was a certain one in the Lonely Planet. We were tired, hungry and ready to get there, so we caved. (Our first mistake of the day.)
The man stated that his hotel was a 15 minute walk out of town, but he was happy to offer a free donkey to carry our packs. Well, ok.... So after a 20 minute walk with a poor donkey hauling our crap, we walked down a little, unmarked driveway, across a small stream and through an apple orchard to reach our hotel. Does anyone else see a red flag here??
Trekking out of town with our donkey
Upon arriving to the "hotel", the man showed us in and to our room... a dirty room with a mattress on the floor (no sheets), a blanket and a rug on the floor. That's it. Hmm, this doesn't sound like the description in the book... We asked to see any paperwork, brochures, anything proving that this was in fact the hotel that he stated it was. Of course he didn't have any because he lied to us and now he's just hoping that we'll stay since we're in the middle of nowhere. Not gonna happen. You're a bad man.
We grabbed our stuff and started back down the long road to the town, when we passed a place that had caught our eye on the way up, Atlas Gite Imlil. It was a lovely stone building with ivy crawling up, a lovely open terrace and roses everywhere. Now this is more what we had in mind.
It also had a highly recommended restaurant, Chez Jean Pierre, named after the French owner.
The silver lining of getting scammed was that we would never have found this place had the original guy not led us up the road out of town - I guess a blessing in disguise!
We went into town to hunt up some provisions for our hike and some dinner. The shopping for snacks was fine, but there was no decent place in town for dinner. Literally no place that served food that was inside. On a night that was already down in the teens (C), we weren't too keen to sit outside.
We scrambled back to the hotel hoping that it wasn't too late to get in for dinner. However, as it's low season, unless he is prepared for you and buys enough food, you're out of luck. Bummer! Luckily, Habib (the owner's son) was very kind and took pity on us, serving the rest of the soup he had, fresh bread, cheeses, olives and eggs. Very tasty. We could definitely tell that he spent some years living in France by his cooking style.
We ate dinner with Gabbie & JP, the only other guests at the hotel. They were a couple from near Quebec City and spoke French, but their English was also exceptional. (Not to sound lazy, but I was ready for a break from my attempts to speak french!). We had a nice chat over dinner, and when we discovered that we all intended to do an unguided hike the next day to Toubkal, we decided to pair up.
The next morning after a lovely brekkie prepared by Habib (and some good luck licks by his pups), we set off on the trail.
- DAY 1 - 10km hike, ascending 1,467m from Imlil to an altitude of close to 3,000m, passing through the town of Aroumd & lots of apple, cherry and walnut trees before crossing the valley floor. This is where the ascent begins, and it didn't let up until we reached the refuge a few hours later. The scenery is spectacular, especially during late afternoon when the clouds were doing their best to catch up with us, shrouding the valley below. While not particularly challenging, it can leave you a bit puffed if you haven't acclimatized properly (as we hadn't). We overnighted in one of the two refuges on the western side of Jebel Toubkal. (Total time: 5 1/2 hours)
Our hiking team - Gabbie, me, JP & Kyle
The stunning scenery on the walk out of Imlil
Looking back at Aroumd
And then forward across the valley floor to Toubkal
Getting overtaken by the donkeys carrying other people's luggage
Taking some time out for the stunning scenery
After 5 1/2 hours uphill, it was fantastic to finally reach the Refuge
After 3 weeks of tagines, we were ready for a change...
so we made Kraft Mac'n Cheese to give us energy for the hike.
- DAY 2 (Part 1) - Ascent to summit (4167 m). Most cross the river then ascend the southern cwm(Welsh word for valleys formed by glacial activity), which was what we intended until we somehow lost the path. We did a fun, somewhat tough climb up the moraine for 45 minutes and then a 10 minute scary scramble across steep, loose gravel when the real path was spotted. The path continued up the fairly obvious path up the snow fields, zig-zagging up the steep path carved into the rock-solid snow. We then picked one of many paths leading around the edge of the mountain until we reached the ridge line. After taking in the spectacular views in all directions, we spotted the metal pyramid marking the top and made our way up the last 30 minutes or so to the summit. This part is where if you're going to get altitude sickness, it will be now. We were at 4000m and still working pretty hard to get there. Slow and steady. (TOTAL TIME: 3 1/2 hours)
What climbing up a moraine at 7am looks like
Feeling pumped up after a fun climb
Looking back over the steep scramble that we had to make back to the trail... A bit scary.
Looking up at our next challenge -- the snow fields
Pausing for a pic (and to catch our breath)
The path zigzagging up through the rock-hard snow
Slowly making my way and trying hard not to slip!
One of the views from the ridge line
Rejoicing when we finally made it to the summit
The views from the summit were phenomenal. Unfortunately, we could only stay and enjoy for about 20 minutes or so before heading back so we had to soak up the serenity and vast beauty of this quite quickly!
- (Part 2) - Descent to the Refuge. We commenced our descent around 11:30am, and it proved more difficult at times than going up, especially on the loose gravel. All of the rock-hard snow encountered on the way up had gotten quite slushy - making some parts a bit slick and others pretty fun. (TOTAL TIME: 2 1/2 hours)
Starting back down
The slippery part coming back down
And then the fun part...
A Kiwi showing us that it was much more fun to sled down on your bum than walk!
Kyle giving it a go - skiing down in his boots
- (Part 3) - After a 30 minute break for a rest and lunch, we had to begin the long trek back to Imlil. The day already felt pretty long, and then to have another 4+ hours of trekking ahead wasn't pleasant. Add in that downhill is killer on your knees and magnifies any minor issues with footware, and it became my least favorite part of the 2 days. (Kyle got major blisters on the back of both heels, and both of us had a couple of my toenails that were destined to fall off later...) By the time we reached the hotel, I was nearly crawling with Kyle giving me a peptalk. Everything hurt so much, that I even had difficulty walking on completely flat ground... (TOTAL TIME: 4 1/2 hours)
Toubkal was by far the highest mountain we've ever climbed, and on our own as well! Well, not completely on our own - we had JP and Gabbie ("the mountain goats") setting the pace, but we were still pleased to have done it.
It was so, so good to get back to the hotel, and while we did our best to stretch out our aching muscles, there was no avoiding the pain that came over the next few days.
There were a few casualties...
Steph's Losses:
- 1 toenail
- was nearly incapable of walking down the stairs for 2 days
Kyle's Losses:
- 2 toenails threatening to go
- hiking pants (which managed to get a huge tear while being ridden down a snowy slope
- pair of hiking boots (2nd to go in the trash so far this trip... Guess we're going boot shopping again...
And a little extra bit -- Gabbie showed me where the secret cherry trees were, so we snuck over and ate a bunch and loaded our hands with as many as possible. I was so excited to eat my stolen cherries! Yummy!
