After another cracking breakfast at Ksar Anika we boarded a rather spacious wagon for the 1.5 hour drive to Imlil . Imlil is the starting village for any treks into the Toubkal region and is perched on the edge of the hills at 1700 metres. Bizarely i recognised the second village where our guide lived. Making me feel old i realised i had been here 18 years before on my gap year. There are lots of hostels to stay at but the one that really screams magnificence is the kasbah Toubkhal. A Scholes like Berber hotel standing out about 200ft above the rest of Imlil on its own precipice. This would be the ideal place to spend the night prior to climbing to adjust to the 1200 metre altitude difference between Imlil and Marrakech.
We were greeted by our guide Abdullah and porter/chef/donkey driver who made us feel very welcome and answered all our queries. Being the organised people we are we hadn't packed any crampons so had to hire some from the village shop, according to Abdullah "not the wisest move, in Africa we don't make good crampons."
The Temperature was around 20 degrees in the sun and having packed several layers we ended up walking the whole day in just thermal top and bottoms with a t shirt on top. The route is blessed with sunshine for almost all of its 16kms. The first 2 hours are fairly basic footpaths climbing steadily towards sidi Charmouch a shrine to the mountain. This is where we stopped for the first of husseins fantastic fodder with mackerel, salad and bread. Along the way there are several little shops offering the last chance to buy and scarves or even jewellery. Just in case you hadn't had the chance in Marrakech. These all offer assorted soft drinks and of course endless bottled water. The refuge was another 3 hours up the mountain following a well beaten path with occasional snowy patches. The proper snow came at about 2900 metres but was not difficult to walk on without crampons and you can actually see the refuge for some time so have a good target to end the day on. Including stops it took us 6 hours to get to the refuge but then i walk very slowly. Abdullahs record is 2 hours and there are several annoying people who a Actualy run past you and back during your struggle.
The refuge appears looking like a lift stop in the alps without any lift and sans frites and vino. It does however cater for lots of groups and we thinks there must have been 40/50 people in there that night. There is wood burner in the main room and several dining areas all clean cosy. There are 4 dormitories each with giant bunked layouts so you plonk your bag down and grab a thick blanket from The chef de refuge and bobs your uncle your home. It's pretty chilly outside once the sun has gone in at 5 ish so the door is kept shut. Once again hussein produced the goods, I foolishly had five bowls of soup only to discover the second course was a full blown lamb tagine and a bonus plate of spag Bol. I was in heaven!
The bedroom was another thing altogether though with torches constantly shining this was and that and the archetypal Frenchman who opened the door and then walked off for half an hour. Needless to say the temperature was below freezing but bearable thanks to the bodyheat of others and the overpowering smell of the unwashed. Some of these guys were staying for four nights and I can tell you the showers were not well used.
www.rjseven.com is the company we used to climb Toubkal.
No comments:
Post a Comment