Atlas Mountains

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Have just spent the most amazing 2 days trekking the Atlas Mountains, let me start from the beginning.
Del & I got picked up from our hotel at 9am on Wednesday morning, after a hour and a half in a taxi we were dropped off in a small Berber village at what we thought was our 'hotel' not a bad place but much to my dismay no en suite, Mohamad, our guide then arrived and introduced himself and informed us that as soon as the 'Donkey' was packed we would be leaving, we did ask if we should put our things in our room but were informed that we wern't actually staying there??

Once 'Donkey' was packed, with our bag, we then set off, following Mohamad and Donkey and a young lad leading Donkey. We proceeded to follow, on a very rough track up the mountain, footing was difficult but more difficult was the incline I actually could feel my heart beat in my head (does that make sense?) Just when I thought, enough was enough Mohamad informed us that we would be stopping for lunch. sure enough right there in the middle of the Atlas Mountains we were served the most amazing lunch, it was so well presented, everything was set out so nicely and it actually tasted delicious.

After lunch we set off again, I actually thought many times 'what on earth am I doing here', after forever, or so it seemed we arrived at another small Berber village and when Mohamad said 'this is your hotel here on the right' I thought that he was joking.............nope, I was wrong! I'm sure the pictures will speak for themselves but it was a very very basic place, to say the least, and to be honest my garage at home is actually more inviting. We had a 'room' with mattresses on the floor and were given a few blankets to throw over us.

Luckily Del and I had in true Brit style packed a bottle of wine so after making up the bed we sat and had, freezing cold may i say, a couple of games of cards in the 'dining room' After a while 'dinner' was served and once again presentation was superb and it tasted even better, how they done this in these condition totally blew me away. After dinner we 'bedded' down for the night and very suprisingly slept very well, it could have had something to do with the 6 hours trekking we had done??

At 8am on the dot we got a knock on our door, which may I say didn't have any lock at all on it. Breakfast was crusty bread, cheese spread and jam but tasted lovely. After packing 'Donkey' we then set off once again on our trek. Words could not describe the walking conditions, for instance what they called a road was actually a dirt track and at several points along the way had we actually missed our footing, well I wouldn't be writing this now lol We walked through local villages and watched the women doing their daily washing in the river with a scrubbing board, goat herds skipping down the mountains with their herds closely following and children and elderly women walking the mountains with great ease as to them it was part and parcel of everyday life.

After 4 hours we arrived at anothe Berber village where once again we were served the most amazing lunch. After lunch our taxi driver was waiting for us to take us back to our hotel in Marrakesh.

The whole experienc was surreal and made us fell very very humble and most of all made me aware of how much we take for granted in our everyday life and how much we over induldge in everything we do.

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Comments

[anon]

hello
would you do this again?

[angecad]

hello
Yes most definately