Introduction
The Toubkal region is a very popular trekking area, and it's also very easy to arrange practicalities.
How to organize a trekking
- If you have a small group yourself, even 2 people is OK, the best thing to do is to arrange transportation to Imlil yourself. To do this take a collective taxi to Asni and from there a truck or other taxi to Imlil. It's best to do this in the morning, because we met a couple who had arrived late afternoon, and there was no public transportation anymore, so they had to take a taxi at a very high price. Once in Imlil it is extremely easy to find a guide. In fact, the guides are grouped into an organization which guarantees that every guide gets his piece of the tourist cake, and this avoids you can start bargaining between several guides. The official price is 250 to 300 DH p.p. per day including everything (food and accommodation), but if you're with more people in 1 group price can go down a bit. A mule costs 40 DH per day per person (group of 3).
- Another option is to go to Hotel Ali and join a group. Then Hotel Ali arranges transportation to Imlil for you, and they arrange a guide there.
Which trip ?
Hotel Ali offers 1 and 2 day treks, but I think 3 days is the minimum. We wanted to do the Imlil to Setti Fatma (3 days), but you can also climb Jebel Toubkal in 2 to 3 days, or do a circuit around Jebel Toubkal in about 7 days.
Our
trip
- We started in Imlil at around 10 am. The first part of the trip goes uphill for about 2 hours till you reach the highest point of the pass. From there you have a great view over the valley. Then it goes down to Ouaneskra. It got really cold there with a lot of wind and no sun. We arrived at 1 pm and had lunch there. To kill time in the afternoon, we went for a walk in the valley for about 3 hours, so still pretty long. When we came back, there were 2 other groups in the refuge and we had dinner and talked. It was very cold, so you really need a good sleeping bag here. No heating, no hot water, electricity till about 8 pm.
- Next day, it turned out it had heavily snowed that night, and the guides didn't want to continue our planned way, because we had to cross a pass of 3200 m, we didn't have decent clothing in the snow, and they were afraid their mules would fall in the snow. Thus the trip was changed and we went down in the valley (partly the same trip as we had done the afternoon the day before). This trip was quite nice, especially with the snow covering roofs at houses. We arrived at 2 pm at our refuge. 2 other people continued further to Asni which is just 2 hours further along an easy and not so spectacular road. We spent the night there, again very cold.
- Third day was pretty boring finishing in Asni. Note that while in the mountains it was raining/snowing, the weather was much better in Marrakesh.
Article Comments:
| 05/30/2006 |
| toni (5) |
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Thanks for the info... I am planning a trip to Morocco and the information was really helpful..... Its a good way to plan when you have had someone else before you spelling out the pitfalls... 'Thanks
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