lorien

Hiking in Morocco

I joint SNP travels for a 16 day hiking tour in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. We flew to Casablanca, catched a train to Marrakech and the next day drove to Tabant. This is were the road ends and the Atlas Mountains begin. My cellular phone already stopped working 30 minutes away from Marrakech, and my illusions of hanging out in pubs or typing away an email in an internet cafe vanished when we arrived in Tabant., where the road stopped..

From here we started walking. Our group consisted of 16 persons , including a guide from SNP, a local guide, 7 berbers and 8 donkeys.

Abdul, our berber guide, showing off

Abdul, Me & Anthonio

Our group consisted of 16 persons , including a guide from SNP, a local guide, 7 berbers and 8 donkeys.

l to r.: (back row): Wijnand,Crista,Willem,Tonio,Ab,Judith, WillemII,Caroline,Hens,Bart,Abdul

front:Zahid,Herman,me,Betty,Ieke,Martijn

Yes, this was a luxury tour, we only carried our day packs, our luggage was carried for us by the donkeys. For the next 12 days we got up around 6-7 am every morning, packed our tents and luggage, had breakfast and started walking. We walked for about 6-7 hours every day, with a big lunch stop.

The berbers took good care of us, not only did they make breakfast, but also a great lunch somewhere on the way. Either on top of a mountain, along a stream or somewhere under a tree. In the late afternoon when we arrived on our camping spot for the night they would be there with mint tea waiting for us.

Everyday the trail and scenery were completely different. We walked through valleys with small villages along streams, through rivers and beautiful gorges. But we also had some steep climbs and descents. The weather was not supposed to be as unpredictable as it was. Almost everyday there was a thunderstorm in the late afternoon, storms and we even felt some hail stones! We measured temperatures of 47 degrees in the valleys, but at night it was freezing cold (ok, maybe that's just me).

	Because of the strong winds it was too dangerous to climb to the second highest top in the Atlas Mountains: Mount Mgoun (around 4100 m). We almost made it but had to turn back. Not without enjoying the view from Petit Mgoun, at almost 4100 m.
Enjoying the view...		Ab, Wijnand, Me and Caroline

After 12 days of tough hiking in the outback of Morocco, we came back to Tabant.

having a break after a hot climb

this is nice!!

falls..

one of our camping spots

another sandstorm comging!!

Next day we drove back to Marrakech and spent another day there before flying back to Holland.

Thanks everyone of our group for a great holiday!!!

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