Three Day Trek in the High Atlas Mountains
The night before our trek was spent at the wonderful Kasbah Samra, a wonderfully restored Berber 'Douar' (dwelling house), owned by Jacqueline, a Swiss lady. We all sat down on cushions to eat a lovely meal at night, and talk and share experiences with the other guests.
In the morning we were met by our guide for the start of the eventful three day trek. The weather the first morning was beautiful and we had a lovely walk up over the Amghedoul pass (7300ft), with lovely views of the Toubkal Massif. From there we moved down to the Berber village Tacheddirt (2291m), arriving in the early afternoon at our very basic Berber House.
After an early breakfast we started our second day with a steady climb up to the Tizi n'Tacheddirt (3200m) with stunning views of the Atlas mountains. As we reached the summit we could see the weather deteriorating, and just after the summit we were in a snow blizzard. From wearing shorts and T-shirts, we were suddenly well wrapped up wearing hats and gloves. The sight of the snowstorm arriving between the peaks gave us some fascinating pictures. Our porters had moved on by now to prepare our lunch, setting up a lunch spot on a rocky outcrop. This would have been lovely in normal circumstances, but though we appreciated the intentions of the porters, I can't really say we were that enthusiastic about sitting in a snow storm having lunch. After this we continued the long descent in very wet weather before arriving at our second very basic Berber House. The walk had been very tiring, and the accommodation was far from comfortable, but with the help of Mike's i-pod, and a cold shower for me, we managed to keep our spirits up.
The weather the final day was much better and we had a pleasant 5 hour walk down along the valley, through orange groves and passing through various Berber villages, to our destination Setti Fadma. We arrived there at lunchtime where our porters prepared our final meal, beside the river, and we then waited for our transport to take us to Marrakech.
