A place I have always wanted to visit is the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, it is somewhere I have heard many people talking about and mention how unique and beautiful it is. Last month I was offered the opportunity to visit Imlil and take on the trek to summit Mt Toubkal. Not being one to turn down a challenge I obviously said YES!
01. Getting there
We took flight from London Stansted to Marrakech which is a very reasonable 3.5 hours. You can pick up a flight to Morocco for s little as £60 so I can be a really cost effective holiday! On arrival we had a private transfer to the mountains arranged by Kasbah Du Toubkal. Transfer time is around 1.5 hours and the scenes on the way through the mountains are amazing!
The Kasbah is only accessible by foot so when you arrive in Imlil your luggage will be taken by Mule to the hotel. The animals are kept in very good condition here so don’t worry about there being working animals. I can honestly say that I didn’t see one mule with any injuries.
02. Arriving at Kasbah
On arrival we were greeted with drinks and snacks after the journey. There is a hammam on site for guests so we made sure we got in to this as soon as possible! We checked in to our room which was lovely and came with all amenities we would need including a fully stocked mini bar, slippers and robes.
03. Food
The food at Kasbah is all included, and is simply amazing! We were so spoilt with the food we had everything from fresh baked bread, Chicken tagines and moroccan meatballs! Vegetarian options are also available. All of this was finished off with traditional tea and fresh fruit. After dinner we spent the evening chilling in the hotel ready for an early start for the trek in the morning.
04. Mt Toubkal Summit
We had a very comfortable start at 9:30 with our guide Muhammad who was absolutely lovely. The first day is roughly 6 hours to basecamp and you will go via local villages and waterfalls on the way with regular breaks. We went in June and it was very hot some prepared with caps and sun cream if you go at this time of year.
Basecamp is basic accommodation but it is fine as long as you have a private room! You will need a good nights rest for the next day and the dorm rooms are very busy and there is not a lot of room in there.
An early night is needed as we got up at 2:30 am to have breakfast and start the trek to the summit. When you start it will be pitch black for hours! This actually isn’t as bad as what it sounds as you are concentrating on where you are walking the time goes really quickly. We got just below 4000m the the sun was coming up and it was pretty spectacular.
The climb to the top is hard I’m not going to lie, but I would say that I had pretty average fitness when I did it so I’m sure that most people would be fine to do it. The main thing is to take your time and be careful of your footing, I had a few slips and the rocks hurt to fall on! You can see the summit just over 4000m and then the last 200m goes pretty quickly.
To summit is an amazing feeling the views are incredible and completely unspoilt. we had a bit of time to chill up there and soak up the views. After this we started the walk back down to basecamp for lunch.
Once we arrived back to the Kasbah it was time for another Hammam and delicious dinner and well deserved rest.
Throughout the entire trek Bina and I felt extremely comfortable and confident in our guide, he made sure that our safety was his priority throughout the entire ascent and decent.
A massive thank you to Kasbah Du Toubkal for arranging this unforgettable trip. It is one that I will cherish. So happy to have spent this time also with my best friend Bina I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her.
