On arrival back to Marrakesh Tin (my friend from work) had already arrived and was waiting for us in the Riad (a large traditional house built around a central courtyard, often converted into a hotel). This Riad was gorgeous and owned by tins friend (http://www.riadalidrisi.com/). We decided to have a chilled evening in the Riad where Yves (the French guy looking after the Riad) cooked us a lovely dinner of chicken tagine. The first evenings sleep was rather interrupted as at around 4am there was a leak in the ceiling and half the plaster collapsed just the other side of the wall to my bed!
The following day we found a pool at a posh hotel down the road and chilled there for the day, catching some rays and enjoying some ice cream, before heading to Chez Brahim in the center of town for dinner. This was a 3 course meal deal and was amazing. My pastilla was a chicken one with cinnamon and almonds; yum! The ambiance was really pleasant with local musicians and we even got sprayed with cold water every so often which cooled us down!
Monday morning was the beginning of our trek so we made sure we got an early night in preparation. Luckily there were no more ceiling collapses and we all woke up nice and refreshed to start the day. Our guide for the week, Mustafa, was ready and waiting for us at 7:30 despite having called us the previous night and agreed to meet us at 8. A very quick breakfast later and we were being briefed on the plans for the day, although very little of it went it as we were all half asleep still.
We hopped in the minibus with Mustafa and Ahmed (our cook) for a two hour journey to our starting point. Unsurprisingly, we all fell asleep on the journey as per! At our starting point we unloaded the minibus and loaded our three mules with food/water/tents etc. for 5 days!
The trek started with a two hour climb to the top of a hill. Luckily this was fairly shaded in comparison to the following 4 days. A very steep descent down to the river and we were lying under walnut trees eating our picnic lunch. The afternoon was very short with a two house descent to our “guesthouse”. As per wikipedia, the definition of a guesthouse is: A small house near a main house, for lodging visitors. As a group, we collectively decided that this was far from what we envisaged the guesthouse to me. In fact, it was more like living in a bug infested prison cell, with an indecisive shower, no lights, and a mattress on the floor. All in all, perfect conditions for a good nights sleep really! We did however have a good evening with Flip overcoming her fear of squatting toilets, and Mustafa kept refilling our cups with “berber whiskey” (aka: mint tea with half a kilo of sugar!) in an attempt to make us go to sleep. All that resulted was hours of giggly girly laughter; a decision I’m sure he regrets!
Awakening in the prison cell was a very surreal and unpleasant experience I’d rather not repeat anytime soon. After breakfast we started our journey for the day. This morning we walked up a valley in the mountains which begun as a steady ascent with secure footing. This was fairly deceiving as this soon escalated into what I could only describe as very dangerous, steep, slippy, rock climbing. Lots of hand holding was required to ensure we all arrived safely at our destination! We made it there in one piece (just about!) but this is not for the feint hearted (note: anyone scared of heights, do NOT attempt this trek!)
At the top we stopped for a 20 minute break where Mustafa fed up dates, figs and nuts to keep our energy levels up. A one hour steady walk later and we were at our lunch stop. Another secluded and shaded spot down by the river meant we were able to take off our boots and give our feet a good clean and cooling down! After stuffing our faces, and being told yet again, that we were not eating enough, it was time for an afternoon nap under the walnut trees (rather romantic don’t you think?!)
The afternoon was relatively easy, although extremely hot! Two hours later, Mustafa informed us we were “nearly there”. It was this afternoon that we discovered that his definition of “nearly there” varies significantly to ours. As we picked up the pace, for what we believed, was the last 15 minutes, we were massively disappointed to turn the corner and see our camp…..far in the distance! A good 30 minutes more walk away and we were all exhausted and very hot, so we decided to take the opportunity to take a dip in the stream to cool off! After dinner we lay outside star gazing for a while as the sky was so bright and the stars were incredible, before eventually retreating to our tents for some sleep.
We all awoke nice and refreshed after a good nights sleep and were pleasantly surprised to find the third day of walking was not quite as bad as the previous one, mainly because it wasn’t as hot. The first hour of the morning was spent climbing a rather large hill which was extremely windy at the top so we didn’t stop for long.
A two and a half hour steady descent later and we were at our lunch spot, which was again by a stream and under walnut trees!
After lunch and a snooze we had a steady climb up to our guesthouse which was 2,250m above sea level. Along the way, we walked past a lake so Ahmed decided to stop off down to shorts and jump in. We were not so brave so Ahmed decided to drench us anyways. We managed to finish the afternoon an hour ahead of schedule which meant we had lots of time to relax. After Ahmed had drenched us earlier, it was time to get our own back! Finding a bucket in the bathroom, we filled it with water and chucked the it all over Ahmed when he came upstairs to the balcony. He seemed less than impressed but everyone else in the hostel found in hilarious! After dinner, we decided to teach Mustafa and Ahmed to play donkey which was also amusing, as after losing, Ahmed through a tantrum knocking a chair flying, before storming off. It was here that we made some new friends; Geoff and Max. These guys were on a 3 day tour with Max being German and Geoff being an Aussie.
We begun the fourth morning trekking with Max and Geoff climbing constantly for 4 hours up to a height of 3,650m. To begin with it wasn’t too bad; we were in the shade and it was a gentle incline, but the final couple of hundred meters of climbing was extremely steep and we all started to lag pace wise.
We stopped at the peak for some photos before descending slightly to a lunch stop.
We were disappointed to find there was no steam, walnut trees, or a nap at this lunch time!! Camp was not far from lunch which was a pleasant surprise, and we again arrived with plenty of time to relax. After a nap in the tent we headed down to the stream for an extremely cold dip/wash. Lots of squealing and a lost pair of knickers later (Tin’s) we headed back up the camp for dinner and much needed sleep.
The final day of trekking was the longest and the toughest, not helped by the fact we awoke at 3am!!! It took us a total of 6 hours to reach the peak of Mt Toubkal (4,168m above sea level) and get back down to camp. It was extremely tough with both Tin and I suffering from altitude sickness but we were glad to have got up so early to avoid the heat. The views from the top were incredible and we were joined by Max and Geoff for a while before we headed back down.
The descent was potentially harder than the climb due to large sections of scree resulting in us all falling over at least 3 times. At one point we all slipped over, with Mustafa just standing at laughing at us all! We made it back down to the camp for lunch before a steady 4 hour walk along the valley to our end point. Around half way back we stopped briefly for a cold drink at a cafe which was very refreshing. We made it back to Marrakesh around half 5 after sleeping the entire bus ride back. It was really sad saying goodbye to Ahmed and Mustafa as we had gotten to know them pretty well over the past 5 days, and they had taught us a lot about Moroccan history and culture.We were all exhausted so decided to stay in the Riad, drink wine, have cold showers and let Yves cook us dinner.
Our final day in Morocco was a fairly relaxed one due to the fact we were all struggling with sore legs, making stairs a task in themselves! We took a taxi over to the Marojelle gardens which were gorgeous and so tranquil.
From here we wandered round some shops before heading to an ice creamery for lunch. Then it was on to an afternoon of shopping in the Artisan. Two and a half hours, 3 bags, 2 plates, 4 bowels and a tagine dish later, we finally made it back to the Riad. After showering and packing, we headed out for dinner. and decided to try a restaurant with a rooftop terrace overlooking the main square. The first restaurant we tried turned out to not have anything we wanted from the menu so we left and found a much nicer place with friendlier staff. We each started with a salad followed by pastilla for flip, tagine for me and grilled chicken for Tin. We had intended to celebrate with wine or cocktails but we soon learned that alcohol is not served anywhere in the main square, so we substituted for ice creams instead; banana splits and fruit melbas all round! The main square was absolutely heaving but we wandered round the stalls and flip and I both successfully came away with a weekend bag. By 1am we were truly knackered, Tin has been offered marriage from one guy, and 5,000 camels in exchange for me from another, so we decided it was best to head back to the Riad.
A mere 5 hours later, we were up having our final breakfast and begun our journey back to England.
We all had an and amazing time and I would definitely recommend Morocco to anyone who has not visited before. Just be prepared to be hassled, be called numerous famous people’s names and for the extreme heat.
Another adventure is over and it’s now back to college to study for some more fun filled accountancy exams!!
Defying the Stereotypes of an Accountant 