Atlas Mountains Trek
Walking in the Atlas
Back from a month in Morocco largely spent trekking across the High Atlas Mountains, there’s one question people keep asking: “Was it what you expected?” What I expected? I had no expectations since I’d never done anything like this before. I simply couldn’t imagine what it would be like.
Physically, it started out demanding. Quickly became extremely demanding. Then settled into a rhythm of continuous challenges that began to feel easier only due to their consistency. Somehow when a day was ending and you imagined there was no way you’d be able to go on, the following day you would do just that.
Walking
Visually, the mountains were truly stunning. Everyday we would find ourselves dwarfed by the most ruggedly gorgeous vistas. Interestingly enough, the 3 major climbs on the trip (Jebel Mgoun (13,356 ft), Jebel Anghomar (11,837ft), and Jebel Toubkal (13,671 ft)) revealed the least inspirational images. Not to say that seeing for miles over the High Atlas wasn’t inspiring, just that there were more varied, interesting things to see walking the valleys and high passes.
Berber Girl
In the end, however, it was the people of Morocco that really made the trip an extraordinary experience. Passing through the nomadic and semi-nomadic berber villages that hadn’t really changed in thousands of years, being accosted by inquisitive village children, spending time hanging out with our berber muleteers smoking Marquis, eating lunch at Young Mohammed‘s house, taking time out from doing my laundry to challenging some village kids to a game of “king of the rock” in a cold river, celebrating my birthday at a gite with an improvised chocolate/mint cake… these all made the trip the truly amazing experience it turned out to be.
On a side note, my new gear performed flawlessly! The boots alone were lifesavers that earned me the distinction of the only member of our group without hideously blistered feet. Additionally, I used every single piece of equipment I brought. Even my Adventure Medical Kit.
I should do my absolute best to remember as much of this time as possible… hopefully some of the thousands of photos I took and placed in a Morocco Photoset on Flickr will help.
Posted in Photography, Travel, exercise
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:39 am
[...] there were many memorable experiences along the way, it was hard to compete with a month in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Additionally, there were some hiccups with Adventure Life… I should remember to think twice [...]