Adventure Travel in Morocco
It is estimated that a few one hundred,000 vacationers go to Morocco every yr with the number one objective of exploring us of a’s 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 visitor 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 with the aid of 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 tend to dictate which regions draw the maximum interest, suffice to say that the Toubkal National Park in the High Atlas is, with the aid of a long way, the most visited vicinity the distinctive feature of its proximity to the traveler Mecca of Marrakesh.
Trekking Practicalities
Times have changed for the reason that the first European excursion conquered Jebel Toubkal in 1923. Back then, the belief in mountaineering a mountain for satisfaction might be an alien concept for 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 villages have a legit manual workplace (Imlil and Setti Fatma are examples); however, if now not, asking round 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 a allow that you could ask to see. Discuss in element your plans and objectives, agree on a price earlier than putting off, check the need for a cook dinner and mule(s) to hold your bags, and ensure which you are clear at the lodging and catering situation on the trek. In the absence of 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 5 refugees inside the Toubkal National Park. Some areas are geared up with Gites tape, basic village houses certified to serve warm food, and a lodge for travelers. Such houses are important to the agricultural economy, and research was undertaken in regions of the High Atlas suggest that the sales generated from accommodations twenty hikers on half of the board basis is equal to 12 months’ sales from agriculture – a terrific sufficient cause in itself for opting to stay in a Gite any place feasible. Also, undergo in mind the gadget-in-depth nature of camping to your journey planning.
Where to head
The maximum visited of Morocco’s hiking regions is the Toubkal National Park within the High Atlas, domestic to u. 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. Throughout plenty of the High Atlas valley walks (in preference to peaks) offer the high-quality image of rural life, which has hardly ever been modified in centuries in lots of groups. The legendary hospitality of the Berber people and the sublime beauty of these villages leaves a long-lasting imprint on all who go to.
Further to the east, M’goun (4071m/13356 ft), Morocco’s third maximum height, sits in one of the maximum 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 months where temperatures 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, which is 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 or not camping or taking gain of 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 no much less placing, 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 street 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 to the 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 variety offers the full gamut of opportunities from multi-day circuits to hikes that head north to sign up for the tarmac route across the city of Kelaa Mgouna, at the Ouarzazate-Errachidia avenue. Be warned that the form of Gite and haven lodging typically found within the High Atlas is almost non-existent right 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 place 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 great 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 a great deal 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 have left this game in the palms of a few expert (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, it’s miles however feasible within the High Atlas and Middle Atlas Mountains between December and April. 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 – there are some chair lifts and a cable car to the summit of Jebel Oukaimeden – and paste alternatives are not in particular expensive. Off-piste skiing is feasible in the Central High Atlas. However, it may be existence-threateningly dangerous without a qualified manual.
