Trip Report - Morocco - 1998
I vacationed in Morocco for 2 weeks this year leaving May 23 and returning June 6. As always, it was an excellent trip. Tom Baugh was on the trip and enjoyed it also.
Tom and I flew from Indianapolis to Detroit to New York-JFK to Casablanca to Marrakech where the trip started. We spent a day and a half in Marrakech playing tourist. We then drove to an area of the high Atlas mountains where we began our hike to the highest point in North Africa. After that we drove to Ouarzazate for a night in a hotel. Then another drive to where we started a hike up the M'Guin Valley. After that we drove back to Marrakech for our flights home, reversing the route we took to Morocco.
Jebel Toubkal (Mount Toubkal) is the highest point in North Africa at about 13,600 feet. Of course Kilomanjaro is the highest point in all of Africa at over 19,000 feet. The trek to the summit of Toubkal started by driving to a small village at about 6,000 feet which was the home town of our Moroccan guide. We spent the night in a kasbah, an old fortress, which had been converted to a lodge.
The next day we hiked to Toubkal Hut at 10,500 feet where we camped. It was overcast all day and we got a little rain. However as we went higher the rain turned to snow. By evening everything had a layer of snow. Getting from the dining tent after dinner to our own tent was a good trick given the darkness, the blowing snow and the snow cover.
The next day we left for the summit about 7:30 am. It was a perfect day, bright and clear. By mid-day the snow cover had completely melted. We got to the summit, 13,600 feet, around noon and were back in camp by tea time, about 3:30. While it was a bit steep, it certainly wasn't a difficult summit compared to some I've done. However it was quite satisfying to make it to the top.
The next day we hiked over a pass along the same ridge as the summit. The pass was about 12,500 feet but only took 2 hours to get up. However then we spent 4 hours or so coming down the other side ending up at Ifni Lake. The next day we only hiked about half a day to our Land Rovers which we then rode to Ouarzazate.
Ouarzazate (war za zat) was a very nice break between the two hiking portions of our trip. We stayed at the Berber Palace hotel which had to be rated 5 stars. In addition to the usual things, our room had a private patio. When we went out to it, we couldn't see any other room's windows, it was that private.
Ouarzazate is a major motion picture center. As we drove into town, our leader pointed out a very large studio. There were 2 film crews staying at our hotel. We saw casting call sheets in the lobby for 2 films, "Esther" and "The Seventh Scroll." Coming out of the hotel once, we saw 4 identical cars with signs in their windows, "The 7th Scroll - Producer", "The 7th Scroll - Director", and so on. Many European film companies shoot here so these may not have been English language films.
From Ouarzazate we drove to the M'Guin river valley in the Atlas mountains. We then spent 4 days hiking through this region.
The first two days of this hike included river wading. In addition to our hiking boots, we carried an extra pair of shoes we referred to as our "river shoes." We wore these most of the first day and all of the second day as we alternated hiking along the banks and wading in the river. The river was neither too high nor too fast so we didn't have any difficulties. At its deepest, the river only came up to mid-thigh on me. And most of the time, it was not nearly that deep. We heard that previous instances of this trip had to deal with water chest high.
After two days in and out of the river, we were back in our hiking boots but still following the river up-steam. The first day after river wading was mainly hiking past a number of Berber villages. One of our Moroccan crew had relatives in one of the villages. As a result, we were invited inside a home for a tea ceremony performed by our crew member. This was a really nice break in the day as well as getting to visit a Berber home.
The last day of hiking was crossing a pass to get out of the M'Guin valley and into another where the Land Rovers would be able to meet us. The region of the M'Guin we hiked is so remote, it has no roads or cars. The next day was riding in the Land Rovers back to Marrakech and flying out the day after.
We certainly ate well in Morocco. The food at the hotels we stayed at was just fine. On the Toubkal hike, we had a really good cook. Mostly we had couscous which is sort of like a stew but not all mixed together. There would be a large dish with a bed of rice and usually lamb in the rice. Then there would be a layer of carrots and then a layer of potatoes.
We thought we ate well in the first part of the trip. The cook we had on the second part up the M'Guin valley was truly exceptional. Of course we had couscous. But we also had beef brochette among other things. I really enjoyed the food.
While Morocco has elected officials and a two house congress, it is first and foremost a kingdom. The King runs the country. If you wanted to start a business, you would have to know the King or one of his relatives. Nepotism is the main way of getting a good job in the country. Although there are efforts at reform, they're mostly symbolic.
While touring Marrakech, we saw the King's palace. Of course this is just one of 10 or 20 palaces around the country that he can use. Had he been in residence at the time, the streets would have been closed and we wouldn't have been able to drive past.
This trip was one of the best I've been on for attention to hygiene and sanitation. For example the toilet tent had a bucket of water and a bar of soap just outside it. We washed and used an anti-bacterial on our hands before every meal. The cooks seemed to be very careful in preparing the food and washing the dishes afterwards. We only drank bottled water, both in the hotels and on the trail.
So, it's quite surprising that almost everyone on the trip had some sort of health problem. This just goes to show that no matter how careful you are, you can still get sick while traveling, especially hiking in remote areas.
In my case, I had some sort of diarrhea on the Toubkal part of the trip. The first several days my problem was that I wasn't able to eat very much. I was able to eat about 800 calories a day, not very much when you're hiking to 12,000 and 13,000 feet However on the way to Ouarzazate the diarrhea became the usual kind. While this isn't a commercial, Imodium really works well. It got me to Ouarzazate without embarrassment. There we were able to get an antibiotic at a pharmacy and a day later I was just fine.
However at the end of the M'Guin hike I ended up with something like a sinus infection which I brought home. On getting home I also had another bout of diarrhea. One dose of an antibiotic from my doctor took care of the diarrhea. But almost nothing helped the sinus infection which took two weeks to clear up. I ended up missing 2.5 days of work my first week back.
The funny thing is that Tom came back with almost identical symptoms. We seemed to be on almost identical schedules as far as what we had and when. So, it's not possible to place blame on who infected whom.
Ali Baba is the nickname given to anyone in Morocco who has a full beard. Both Tom and I qualified. I first heard this while walking through the market in Marrakech. As I was walking along I would hear vendors call out, "Hey, Ali Baba." Later I asked our leader about this and she explained the meaning. Our Moroccan guide was really pleased to have two Ali Babas along.