Adventure Travel in Morocco
It is estimated that a few hundred 000 vacationers go to Morocco every year with the number one objective of exploring one of the great mountain areas and with true reason. Upland Morocco offers incredible beauty, high drama, and intriguing cultural encounters in equal degree, and, with a rising infrastructure to deal with the demands of cutting-edge adventure visitors and a protracted listing of overseas and nearby excursion operators that provide nicely organized journey tours, there is in no way been a higher time to go to the ‘Land of the Berbers’. Mountain trekking, characterized by multi-day trekking circuits often incorporating a summit climb, attracts the lion’s share of visitors, even though mountain biking, rock climbing, and canyoning are growing in recognition. Accessibility and infrastructure generally dictate which regions draw the maximum interest; suffice to say that the Toubkal National Park in the High Atlas is, in a way, the most visited vicinity, the distinctive feature of its proximity to the traveler Mecca of Marrakesh.
Trekking Practicalities
Times have changed because the first European excursion conquered Jebel Toubkal in 1923. Back then, the belief in mountaineering a mountain for satisfaction might have been alien to High Atlas villagers. Although this may nonetheless be the case in the remoter areas, the inhabitants of Morocco’s major trailheads have great expertise in the visitor’s requirements.
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All of the United States’ essential hiking regions have a principal village or metropolis wherein you may have interaction with the services of mountain courses, mules to hold bags, and cooks if required. Some towns have a legit manual workplace (Imlil and Setti Fatma are examples); however, if they do not, asking rounds usually yields quick results. In all but the very busiest season, you must be capable of finding a manual to be had for a departure the next day.
Check the manual’s credentials because the United States of America’s only respectable mountain courses have completed an intensive schooling direction at Africa’s simplest mountain guide education college at Trabant within the Ait Bougmez Valley. Bone-fide publications convey an advantage that you could ask to see. Discuss your plans and objectives, agree on a price earlier than putting off, check the need for a cooked dinner and mule(s) to hold your bags, and ensure you are clear at the lodging and catering situation on the trek. Without another option, most hiking circuits require you to camp, although positive villages within the High Atlas offer basic accommodations for walkers.
The Club Alpin Français (CAF) operates five refugees inside the Toubkal National Park. Some areas are geared up with gite tape, basic village houses certified to serve warm food, and a lodge for travelers. Such places are important to the agricultural economy, and research undertaken in regions of the High Atlas suggests that the sales generated from accommodations for twenty hikers on a board basis are equal to 12 months’ sales from agriculture – a terrific sufficient cause in itself for opting to stay in a Gite any place feasible. Also, remember the gadget-in-depth nature of camping in your journey planning.
Where to head
Morocco’s hiking regions are most visited by the Toubkal National Park within the High Atlas, domestic to the U.S.S.’s maximum height, Jebel Toubkal (4167m/13671ft). Between late spring and early autumn, Toubkal, handy from the village of Imlil, can be scaled in two days, even though many walkers prefer to keep North Africa’s highest top for the climax of every week’s hiking starting from Setti Fatma (inside the Ourika Valley) or Oukaimeden. Plenty of the High Atlas valley walks (in preference to peaks) offer a high-quality image of rural life, which has never been modified in many groups in centuries. The legendary hospitality of the Berber people and the sublime beauty of these villages leave a long-lasting imprint on all who go to them.
Further to the east, M’goun (4071m/13356 ft), Morocco’s third maximum height, sits in one of the most lovely components of the High Atlas. The trailhead valley of Ait Bougmez is domestic to some of the United States great-preserved vernacular Berber structure and offers a trouble-free start line for 5 to 10-day circuits that scale M’goun. Head for this location all through the summertime, where temperatures do not often exceed 28°c, a welcome wreck from the heat of Marrakech, which lies a few four hours by road to the west.
One of the few valleys whose beauty compares to Bougmez is the Vallée de Los Angeles Tassaout, accessed through the manner of the Tizi-n-Rogault pass from the M’goun region. Villages in this valley are seemed to be some of the finest in Morocco. They offer exciting opportunities for hikers, whether camping or gaining Gite tape accommodation in some of the hamlets alongside the Tessaout River. The Bougmez and Tessaout valleys form tiers of an immense 3-week High Atlas traverse that links this astounding area with the Toubkal vicinity, a program offered increasingly through foreign journey excursion operators.
Heading South
Although not much less placed, more peripheral are the Jebel Saghro and the Jebel Siroua, two mountain tiers on the south aspect of the High Atlas; both are on hand through tarmac streets and offer good enough infrastructure in their respective trailhead towns of N’Kob and Taliouine. Trekking in both areas is great in spring and autumn.
The Saghro, which lies southeast of Ouarzazate, is an isolated and savagely stunning range of angular peaks and desktop’ mess.’ Navigation problems and a profound shortage of water inside the variety make trekking here a venture, so always engage a qualified nearby manual, which you can generally discover inside the pleasant metropolis of N’Kob. The array offers the full gamut of opportunities, from multi-day circuits to hiking north to sign up for the tarmac route across Kelaa Mgouna at the Ouarzazate-Errachidia avenue. Be warned that Gite and Haven lodging typically found within the High Atlas is almost non-existent here, so nights inside the Saghro are normally spent underneath the canvas.
The Siroua place forms a volcanic bridge among the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains, and maximum treks within the area tackle the non-technical summit of Jebel Siroua (3304m/10839ft) to the north of the trailhead city of Taliouine. On a clear day, this nub-like summit gives some of the greatest views in Morocco, with the High Atlas, the Anti-Atlas, the Jebel Bani, and even the dunes of the Sahara in view. In this area, it’s possible to live in Berber homes (chez inhabitant), and manual and mule services are to be had in limited ability in Taliouine.
Other mountain sports
Morocco’s giant community of pistes (jeep roads) makes the United States of America perfectly suited to mountain cycling. Harsh gradients and negative surfaces in the Central High Atlas make off-street biking the handiest simply available to experienced riders. Still, the Jebel Siroua, the Anti-Atlas Mountains, and the Draa Valley provide gentler opportunities. Good exceptional mountain bikes aren’t for hire in Morocco, so you are encouraged to bring your own if you need to travel independently. Local maps display some, but no longer all, pistes, and navigation without a guide may be much tougher than you may assume.
Rock mountaineering is a popular pursuit in Morocco, mainly within the Todra Gorge and the Anti-Atlas Mountains around Tafraoute. Equipment lease and professional guide services are not continually smooth to return by, so establishing a journey of this nature with a tour operator makes real sense.
The Central Atlas mountains around Ait Bougmez are ideally suited to canyoning. However, a shortage of skilled guides and suitable quality gadgets has left this game in the palms of a few experts (foreign) operators.
Trips of this nature should be organized before you arrive in Morocco. Skiing is not perhaps a game you’ll generally find accomplice with Morocco. However, between December and April, it’s miles feasible within the High Atlas and Middle Atlas Mountains. Snowfalls are never assured, but the northern orientation of the (one) ski slope at Oukaimeden, the USA’s quality-prepared ski inn, gives skiers the pleasant danger of a few downhill actions but constrained. Services at this motel are rudimentary – some chair lifts and a cable car to the summit of Jebel Oukaimeden – and paste alternatives are not particularly expensive. Off-piste skiing is feasible in the Central High Atlas. However, it may be existence-threateningly dangerous without a qualified manual.
