21.06.18
Earlyish start this morning as we were heading off into the Atlas mountains on a private tour. Our driver arrived promptly at 9am and walked us out of the Riad area to the main road to where his car was parked. Before we knew it we were out of Marrakech heading south towards the High Atlas. Our destination today was Imlil. Imlil is the town at the foot of Mt Toukbal, the highest peak in Nth Africa (probably second behind Kilimanjaro for Africa). It is renowned as an outdoor adventure town- mainly trekking adventures, but also skiing (cross country) + ice climbing in the winter time. No big hiking for us today- just a couple of hour trek up the valley to one of the little villages ringing Imlil.
To get to Imlil though we had a few hour drive ahead of us. First stop was to a women’s cooperative where we had some brekky and were treated to a “how to make Argan oil” demonstration from the local women. Kind of glad that we had, had breakfast at the hotel this morning because the “brekky” at the cooperative wouldn’t have lasted me through the day! (Bread and some thyme tea). The women suckered me in and I bought some more Argan oil for my hair and also for my wrinkles (not sure of its anti aging properties but feels nice on the skin). I should also mention that the women’s cooperative was right next to this old Berber village.. the village has been inhabited since 1055!
Next stop was a bit strange.. we stopped next to a creek in this valley. The stop was so that we could go on a camel ride up the creek a little bit. Kind of weird because there wasn’t really any purpose to the camel ride but it was a nice interlude in the long drive to Imlil. S’s camel was Aiysha- she is 7yrs old and the mother of the camel I was riding, known affectionately as the baby. S got so proficient at his camel riding skills that our Berber guide ended up handing over the reins of the caravan to S! Was slightly worried as baby and I were tied onto Aiysha…
Anyway, camel caravanseri over, back into the car and up the mountain to Imlil. The valley that houses Imlil (and five other villages) is very picturesque. Huge stark peaks on every side and this tiny valley running through the middle (complete with river and waterfall). On arrival into Imlil (1700m above sea level), Mustafa (our driver) handed us over to his older brother Omar who was our guide for our hike around the valley. The hike was really beautiful. To start with, the valley is full of fruit trees (all owned by the villagers who share out the produce) and being summer everything is green and vibrant- so the first part of our walk was up to a waterfall following this path of fruit trees (cherry, apple, walnut, blackberries, quince, elderberries).. Very beautiful.
Waterfall itself was pretty although not on the scale of the waterfall we are due to see tomorrow in Ouzoud. From the waterfall we headed further up the valley past two other towns to the top of the valley. At the top of the valley we got a really great view of Mt Toukbal- considering for the rest of the day the mountain was shrouded in cloud we were pretty lucky to get a view of the mountain. Surprisingly, it had little snow left on it’s peak—for some reason I expected it would still have quite a bit of snow, but, no! The top of the valley we were over 2000m above sea level and both of us were using the lower oxygen levels as the excuse for why the hike was feeling strenuous.. to be honest at just under 7000 ft it is unlikely we were actually having much in the way of lower oxygen levels but it is a good excuse when you are feeling a bit puffed, much better than admitting you aren’t as fit as you thought! 🙂
We stopped at the last village for the obligatory “carpet shop” stop. Again was pleasantly surprised to see that the owner actually wasn’t that pushy. The local carpets produced in the village are white wooly carpets, and it really wasn’t what I was looking for… Think oversized bath mat and that is what the local carpets look like.. I did consider it but then remembered that I now live in a pretty small house that I have no chance of fitting in more carpets!
Carpet shop stop over and we walked back down the mountain (on the other side of the valley) and to our lunch break back in Imlil. The BEST food we’ve had in Morocco! The most delicious chicken tajine with cous cous and bread… Super duper yummy! Super duper yummy food but bloody freezing! During our walk back down the mountain the clouds had rolled in and the wind had started to blow.. Thank goodness both of us had taken our jumpers on the hike into the mountains cause we needed them! Eventually we ditched our lunch spot on the terrace and sat inside the building as it was too cold to sit outside anymore!
Lunch over and it was time to leave Imlil (after meeting Omar’s children and sheep) and snooze our way back to Marrakech. Awesome day out in the Atlas mountains and one that I would love to repeat by doing a few day trek in these gorgeous mountains!