OUR HIKE TO A MOUNTAIN GITE

WEATHER: Hot and 38C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Reaching 2260m above sea level and getting my jump there

BUMMER OF THE DAY: The 45 minute uphill walk was actually a MASSIVE HIKE

BUYS OF THE DAY: Silver cuff bangle for 8AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: Man it’s hot

What an uncomfortable sleep we all had.  It was so hot in our rooms, and even with the wet towel trick, it made for a very warm night of sleeping.  We are all pretty tired this morning as we were all in the same boat.  This is a real life experience, we are in Morocco and not everyone has the opportunity for air conditioning, so we just need to suck it up.  After a wonderful breakfast on the terrace we leave the beautiful Ait Benhaddou for another driving day today to get us to our family gite in the Atlas Mountains this afternoon.

We are still in the Atlas Mountains and the scenery is just amazing.  Lots of valleys and the roads today are really windy, if you suffer from travel sickness, then today is the day you would want to take your pills.  It didn’t stop all day, winding up, winding down, winding up, and winding down.  George, Aimes and I are the back seat bandits, so if anyone was going to feel it would be us, but we actually were doing okay.  Our first stop was at the Tizi n Tichka Pass 2260m in the High Atlas Mountains.  They have a sign here with the altitude on it, so it was pretty cool to get a Bernstar jump in front of it.  I think that has to be the highest jump so far!!!

The best ‘quick click stop’ was just past the Tizi n Tichka pass sign and it was overlooking the valley and you could see the road zig zagging down the 2260m to the bottom, it made for some really good photos, and thanks again to Issam for doing the stop for us all – it is awesome that we get so many stops. 

We drove through to Imlil and Toubkal National Park around 1pm.  We are storing our bags at a café in the town and then walking 45 minutes to a mountain gite for the night.  Now in Issam defence, he did say that we needed walking shoes for the walk, but I thought he was meaning once we got to the gite, that you would need your walking shoes for the walk from the gite, so I had on my sandal thong shoes: totally the wrong shoes for what was to come.  AND he did mention we were going from 1750m, which is where Imlil is situated to 2000m which is where the village was BUT in Intrepids hand notes, it says and I quote ‘ you will then walk uphill for 45 minutes to get to your accommodation’.  WELL let me tell you the ‘walk’ part was for like 10 minutes, it then turned into a HIKE up a MOUNTAIN on loose stones, a donkey track, river crossings and loose stone steps.  Where the hell was the walk???  There was an option to take a donkey up for 5AUD, but I think I would have been terrified being on top of the donkey seeing the angles and the loose stones that they had to walk over as well, I am still glad I walked but it would have been nice to have had a bit more warning on what we were to expect.  Needless to say with the wrong shoes (nothing to do with my fitness level of course) I was the last to arrive, but slow and steady wins the race and I was just glad I made it up after 50 minutes.  Thanks to Jeff, who was keeping an eye out for me, literally keeping me in his eye sight the whole time.

As mentioned the walk/ HIKE took 50 minutes to the village of Armend which had a magnificent view of Morocco’s and North Africa’s highest peak Mount Toubkal.  We stayed in a Mountain Home Stay called a Gite – which is like the western term of a hostel.  Shared facilities and people sleeping in the same room.  We had Tom, Lesley, Aimes, George, Susan and I in one room and the others in the second.  I got to the room first so I got first pick of the beds, thank goodness, cause Susan ended up getting eaten alive from something in her bed, which was right next door to mine, and I didn’t get one bite.

So we had free time in the fresh mountain air for the afternoon and that night.  It was like stepping back in time in Armend which was an amazing experience and well worth the walk up – you can ask me now, as I was a little upset on the ‘trickery’ of the terminology of the actual HIKE.

Susan and Tom not well are not well, with Jeff feeling a little off and Lesley taking some medication.  I just hope it isn’t contagious, I had my sick day earlier on in the piece, and I got mine over and done with early.  Most of the things we have had have only been 24 hour bugs, so we have been quite lucky all round on the health front.  But we have all had a down day on the trip.  I think it mostly has to do with the heat, it really shows that you need to keep your liquids up in such hot conditions.

Sitting on a chair, looking out at the valley onto Morocco’s highest peak has to be an awesome way to finish of a fairly hectic afternoon.  I am glad I HIKED in my sandals and hope that I don’t pull up too sore tomorrow morning for the HIKE back down again.  The mountain air is awesome…..