Blogs from Imlil, Souss-Massa-Draâ, Morocco, Africa

Betsy and I agreed to splurge on a ride from Essaouira to Imlil as our bus experiences in Morocco haven’t been so pleasant. Imil is located in the High Atlas Mountains about 1 hour south of Marrakech. Our driver sends someone to pick us up in our riad in the medina (as no cars are allowed). We get in the car… it is sorta like a minivan, without windows that you can roll down. After about 30 minutes we ask for the AC (as we booked a car with AC of course). Well, there was AC; however it didn’t work. OYE. Our driver was on his own schedule. He stopped for lunch, drinks and smokes. The drive should have taken 3 hours in total. We spent 5 hours in a car with no AC and no ... read more

Another long drive today took us into the High Atlas Mountains with some stunning scenery along the way. Our starting point was Imlil, a village filled with guides, hikers and equipment rental places. We had a 1 - 1.5 hr leisurely walk through some mountainous terrain, flowing streams with fresh snow runoffs, and fields of wild flowers - Irises, poppies etc - to reach a village called Armed where our gite (guest house) is located. We could see Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa at 4165m, in the distance. The gite was better equipped than I had expected - 3 or 4 reasonably comfortable beds crammed into a small room with communal bathroom. There was no heating and it felt even colder than the desert because we were high in the mountains. I went ... read more

From the rocky desert outside the city our taxi pointed toward the vague outline of the High Atlas mountains, eventually climbing through low red hills until the turns grew tighter and we were deposited in our small-town mountain destination. Imlil is the sleepy Berber town that exists primarily as a starting-point for trekkers who set out to hike the Toubkal region and summit Toubkal, Africa’s second tallest mountain. Imlil is like many of the other small mountain towns that I’ve encountered. Endless budget hotels, restaurants that offer more or less the same few dishes (no menu to speak of), and provisions stores selling all the canned tuna and Snickers bars that the unprepared trekker could hope for. We bargained our way into a small hotel (where we slept on mattresses on the floor) and at five ... read more

When someone says that the highest mountain in North Africa is literally on your doorstep but it's not on the itinerary as it's a really hard trek, what is one to do but take up the challenge? With 3 other intrepid souls, and dubbing ourselves "Team Extreme", we set off to scale Mount Toubkhal which reaches 4167 metres. First day we set off late in the afternoon after a tortuous 5 hour bus journey to Imlil. Got to our camp after 4.5 hours (last half hour in the dark as the sun had already gone behind the mountains). Went up around 1270 metres to 3200 metres. Felt buggered but managed to get through a 3 course candlelight meal of veggie soup, mutton tagine, and melon & mint tea to finish off. Then it was off to ... read more

Imlil and Kasbah Toubkal We arranged a day tour through Kasbah Toubkal. This was a fantastic day, not only for the sights but also because the tour was so well run. At the end of our tour, Elaine dismounted awkwardly from her mule, and badly strained the ligaments in her left knee. Even with that, we thought that this was the best day of the tour for what we did and saw, even if it was also the worst. Some more descriptive stuff to come. For now, it is just the photos.... read more