It all started early on Saturday 2 July with a dash through Gatwick Airport for me (Gill) and Hannah, following a check-in debacle, to join Linda and Patricia on our flight to Marrakech!
Training hadn’t gone that well for the intrepid adventurers, dog walks on their local hill seem to have been the order of the day for Linda and Patricia, Hannah had trekked round her quarry (or so she said) and as for me, well …
After a short ‘getting to know each other’ flight, we arrived in Marrakech to be greeted by 43-degree heat; it was like walking into an oven, wow! Pen, our Mountain Leader and Founder of Nowzad dogs charity, and Abdulla, our local guide, were there to welcome us – did they know what they were letting themselves in for?
No delay in getting into our hotel pool to cool off, I think we were all wondering how we’d cope walking in this heat. After a nice dinner at the trendy café/restaurant around the corner, where we discovered our first challenges was going to be keeping ‘Hungry Hannah’ satisfied in the coming days with her appetite of a horse, we retired for an early night with our own thoughts of what lay ahead.
Sunday morning saw us head off into the hills to start our acclimatisation. We were entering the real Morocco, and, after cosmopolitan Marrakech, it was a real contrast. It’s a more traditional region where women wear burkas and mules are the main form of transport.
Adullah and Pen
Prior to going on the trek, I’d spoken to animal charity SPANA, in the UK, who provide veterinary husbandry care and advice for donkeys, mules and horses in Morocco, to check that if we used mules to carry our bags in the hills, we wouldn’t be compromising their welfare. They reassured me that indeed we should use them, as by giving the muleteers our business they were better able to afford to care for their animals.
Getting acclimatised
Our (non-mule) transport took us to the village of Imlil, a bustling place where you can pretty much buy anything. From here we had to walk half an hour up to our base in the village of Armed, nestled on the hillside. Everything was either up or down hill from here – this was our home for the week. Excited to get a glimpse of the mountains and our nemesis Jebel Toubkal after a super lunch prepared by our chef Mohammed we went on a ‘walkabout’ led by Pen and met local character ‘Robin Hood’, who we almost lost Hannah to for, what was it … five camels?
The village is home to just over 1000 people who make a living essentially by goat/sheep or walnut farming or through selling trinkets in their small tourist shop or selling coca cola to hot and dusty trekkers up the mountains. Wherever there was an opportunity to part us with our dirham or ‘dib dabs’, as we called them, you can bet someone had thought of it – so enterprising.
Over the next two days, Monday and Tuesday, we were to ‘acclimatise’. Now to now, us ladies had envisaged strolling around our village getting used to the temperature and terrain, maybe buying a few trinkets but oh no, Pen had other ideas and we found ourselves on five to six hour daily treks. Thank goodness for the coca cola man. Returning tired to our accommodation and following Patricia, Linda and Hannah’s daily yoga practice, Pen, Patricia and I decided to go for a quick discrete dip in the glacial waters of the local river to cool off- gosh that was refreshing.
Now, with our legs and heads ‘well acclimatised’, Wednesday morning arrived and we were up bright and early to get ahead of the sun and start our climb up to our refuge at 3000m, where we would stay prior to our summit attempt the next day. Taking our litres of water and snacks for the road in our backpacks, our beautiful mules carried our overnight bags, sleeping bags and warm jackets to the refuge for us (leaving all none essentials in Armed) and we headed for the shrine. The Sidi Chamharouch shrine (marked by a white-washed rock) is visited by Muslim pilgrims, who make the long trek in the hope of curing various illnesses. Abdulla our guide, smiles at this prospect, choosing his more traditional approach to religion instead.
Walking through the initial lush green valley in the cool morning air we started our climb from Armed and it took us one and half hours to reach the Shrine for a much needed fresh orange juice. The temperature was rising and, as we crossed over the valley, we were in full sun. It took a further four hours to reach our refuge and lunch – definitely ready for that!
Dizzying heights
The afternoon was spent relaxing and preparing for our very early summit attempt tomorrow, all a little anxious about whether we would be able to complete our mission and reach the top, knowing how hard the previous days had been and now with the added ingredient of altitude. An early night was had by all. However, others also climbing the summit shared our dormitory and we sadly found that we were sharing our dorm with a “wild boar” who kept us awake most of the night with HER snoring!
Bleary eyed, team 1 (Linda, Patricia and Pen) rose in the dark at 5am to start their trek to the top followed by team 2 (Hannah, Gill, Mike, Abdulla) at 7am, accompanied by our cook’s 13 year old son Yassin (AKA mountain goat).
Our first obstacle was to balance across the home-made bridge (a plank of wood) loosely resting between two large boulders across the river – doing this in the dark? Mmmm? We made it and started our climb. Bizarrely, despite the high temperatures at the refuge, we also had to navigate across sections of snow in our climb up to the top. The worst, for me, was the scree which made the going tough.
In radio contact with the other group, we edged our way up watching with envy our new friend Yassin, who just bounced his way up effortlessly.
At approximately 11.30am, both teams made it to the top for a team hug and at 4167m we had the best ‘top of the world’ views ever. Wow, it was worth it and what an achievement to have climbed a 4167m mountain, not least for Linda (70) and Patricia (64), so proud of you all. Go Girls, you all rock!!!
Heading back down to reality, we all took the opportunity to visit the SPANA clinic in Marrakech, where people can bring their mules, donkeys, horses, dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea pigs to be treated free of charge and receive vital care information. It is a wonderful place of calm and so desperately needed.
This has been an amazing experience for us all – tough and challenging but also fun and absolutely positive.
Thank you
Our thanks go to Pen and Abdulla for getting us through this in one piece to achieve our goal for our bears, dogs and cats. Our thanks too to all those who spurred us on with their wonderful texts and sponsorship – it really does help in our hours of need.
If you would still like to support our efforts for the animals we all love it is not too late. Please visit our justgiving page.
