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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3024 |
1st January 2012 Hiking - Walking: Imlil-Morocco Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: After 2 days in Marrakech we hired a car and headed up into the Higfh Atlas Mountions and the walk is from Imlil up to a waterfall and along a mountain stream and up into the hills on the 1st Jan Saturday 31 December 2011 Another big breakfast and made lunch then checked out and got a taxi back to the airport to hire our car. Got some cash out and bought a map then set out into the madness of Marrakech with me taking the first turn! We got lost on the way out but were soon heading out towards the High Atlas Mountains. We stopped for lunch at a reservoir and carried on up on what we thought was the road to the only ski resort in Morocco. This virtually new road ended up being a dead end with a group of people trying to sell treks at the end of it. Beautiful scenery though and our chance to see lots of Berber life and stand on some snow at least:) We retraced our journey and stopped in the village of Imlil and were instantly asked if we would like a room in the Cafe Aksoual by a man called Hassan (whose Wife comes from Bristol). The rooms were basic but clean and only 120D for the room, dinner and breakfast (just under £10). We decided to stay and Hassan made up a fire in the cafe and we spent a good few hours chatting to Hassan’s older cousin who is a trekking guide and was offering us many different length treks including one up J. Toubkal which is the 4,167 peak. There was also a Norwegian lady staying who was a regular visitor to Morocco so she was very interesting too. When we finally went to our rooms we were frozen and got into our bed with all our clothes, coats and hats on, covered up with the two blankets and sat there like the grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. The cold up here after dark is bone numbing! Sunday 1 January 2012 Amazingly we did sleep and went down to breakfast in the cafe. Decided to walk through the village – we were tempted by the many offers of treks but at this point in the holiday were still planning to do quite a major tour so didn’t feel we had the time. We were soon going up the mountainside along the winding trek paths, meeting the Berber people on foot and on donkeys at regular intervals. Also met lots of trekkers with all their gear being carried on following donkeys. Unfortunately it all went a bit pear shaped when we got to the waterfall. I stopped to take some of my slowed down water photos and told the others to go on. The entrance to the main part of the waterfall was concealed by rocks which they found and I didn’t:( They enjoyed the waterfall and seeing the trekking kitchen set up there complete with Tajines etc. And I carried on up the mountain path. I had a brilliant walk but the others were worried when I disappeared and Mag thought I was at the bottom of a ravine:( I did rejoin them eventually and after buying a couple of bracelets from a very old and persuasive man in the village we set out in the car to find the ski resort of Oukaimeden. We never did find it, after following all the right road signs we ended up virtually back where we started (quite near Richard Branson’s posh mountain retreat). We stopped in the village to get bread and laughing cow cheese (this was to become our staple lunch for the whole holiday). We were approached by a man to join his family for some couscous to celebrate New Year. He was very genuine and friendly and because our son had been to Oman and received this kind of hospitality regularly we finally agreed. He took us to his house, sat us on cushions and brought Mag a quilt as she was cold. His mother made us the traditional mint tea and went through the ritual of warming the glasses and pouring the tea from a great height! We chatted to the man and were introduced to his young daughter, his pregnant wife and his 92 year old grandmother! Family is a huge part of Moroccan life. A tajine of couscous and vegetables was brought in. It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and definitely a real Berber experience but the whole thing was soured when he produced a bag full of hugely overpriced items for us to buy. We didn’t expect a free lunch and had offered to pay (which really offended him) but he was a rather aggressive salesman whose whole demeanour changed when we were not enthusiastic buyers:( We did escape in the end after giving him ten English pounds. I know we were probably naive and should have gone with our original instinct of declining his invitation but after Rob’s experience of genuine hospitality in Oman we were too trusting. However we did have a unique experience and if he had let us pay for lunch up front it would have been fun. We travelled on through the mountains for several hours, saw the sunset and arrived in Talouet in the dark. We were again instantly approached by a man (Aissa) with a room – he took us down lots of alley ways with a torch and we were wondering where on earth we were going to end up but eventually arrived at his small hotel which was really nice – a bit similar to a ski chalet in some ways. He lit a fire and we very soon went to bed as we were exhausted by our eventful day! Photo Gallery 1 here Photo Gallery 2 here |
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