Valley of the Roses (Maura's account)
Valley of the Roses Trek
(On the recent Marocco trip.)
Under the leadership of our knowledgeable guides Mohammed and Rachid this trek took us from the Dades Valley deep into the M'Goun Massif. Trekking on average 6 hours per day, the route undulated between lush valleys and higher arid terrain at 1750M. We passed through quaint Berber villages, nestled in the landscape which provided great insight into the lives of these friendly and welcoming people.
Our trekking team besides the guides listed above, consisted of a driver and a cook who couldn't have done more for us, providing delicious lunches along the way and dinner when we reached our accommodation for the night.
The first day's trek brought us through the Dades Valley to the desert plateau of Ighrem Akdim located at 1700M where we had an obstacle to overcome! To reach our accommodation for the night it was necessary to ford icy cold water, but this was soon forgotten as we enjoyed our delicious dinner.
The next few days brought us through the lush terrain of the Valley of the Roses until we met another challenge on day four!
This was something many of us had not experienced before. The route brought us from the foot of the McGoun Massif, at the village of Alemdoun, through the Agouti Gorge emerging at the southern side. To attain this end, it was necessary to remove our boots to trek for 90 minutes through icy water, sometimes knee high, which challenged some of us!
The final hike took us up over the Valley of the Roses where we passed through ancient kasbahs nestled in the landscape with some magnificent architecture until we arrived in Tabarkhacht where our trekking adventure ended.
Downtime in Agadir and Marrakech was very welcome where we had time to relax before our flight home.
Maura Kenneally
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Morocco 2023 (Irene's Report)
Some pics. more pics to follow
Toubkal and Berber Village trek.
On our first day after a short journey by bus, we met up with our guides Omar and Hasan, our chef Mohamad and our 6 muleteers and mules for our luggage, who would be accompanying us on for our trek. Our plan was to trek high and sleep low in order to acclimatise for our trek up Toubkal. Our chef Mohamad, and the muleteers prepared all our food, and the quantity and quality was excellent for the whole of our trip, plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, lovely salads. We had picnics most days en route, and the food was always fresh and well prepared, we never went hungry or
thirsty.
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| Aroumd |
On our first day walking We started off in heavy rain, and walked for 6 hours to our accommodation in a Berber house in Anfa Id Aissa. 2000m. Accommodation was basic but clean, with communal
bedrooms, mattresses on the floor. Trying to dry our clothes was a bit of a problem but everyone
was in good spirits. Our hosts in all the places we stayed, were very hospitable. We ate in a
communal dining room every night, which we had to vacate early in the evening as this is where the
muleteers slept.
Omar and Hasan told us all about their culture, and brought us to a local school, where we got to sit
in on a lesson with the young children. They were very young 6/8 but were being thought 3
languages, French Arabic, and the Berber language, which is once again being spoken having been
going out of use. We also went to a women’s cooperative, where the women were learning to read
and write, and make rugs. Our group kept our guides busy with questions about their culture and
everyone was genuinely interested in finding out about their lives. Some of the places we walked
through looked very poor, but the people and especially the children were genuinely pleased to see
us.
We were invited to afternoon tea in a local house, there was great excitement as we made our way
through the village, school was just out so we had an escort of all the local children, we sat on mats
outside in the garden while our host pored us the local mint tea.
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| Drying Day |
Our guides kept us informed every night on our next day’s treks, and the weather conditions on
Toubkal. They told us that the mountain had been closed by the authorities, as there were
avalanche warnings in place. Some parts of Morocco had had its first snow in 9 years, even reaching
down as far as Marrakech. We were all disappointed but were still hopeful that we would be able
to summit.
Our walks took us through the stunning Valleys of Tizi Ntacht (2000m) and Azzadene valley Tizi Mzik
(2500m) . We stayed in the highest village in the Imlil valley, Aroumd, which is the gateway to
Toubkal, The scenery in the valleys was stunning. On many days we had a good view of Toubkal,
covered in snow. By day 5 we had given up any hope of reaching the Refuge, or Toubkal, it was too
dangerous. After the trekking part of our holiday was over, we travelled to Agadir for some very welcome R&R.
We stayed 2 nights before once more going back to Marrkech, for one night with a full day to
explore. We broke up into small groups and went to the Souk, the Grand Mosque and some went to
the Majorell gardens. At the airport we said our goodbyes to Mohamad Ait Elmahjoub, who had expertly organised all our
groups activities.
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