Kasbah du Toubkal Imlil

... recognize.<br><br>We had yet another picnic, and this time I was force fed melon until I thought I would burst.<br><br>Then we had another drive to the High Atlas. It was a winding road with steep cliffs. A little scary actually. It was the weekend, so the place was full of vehicles. And rain was coming. So people were abandoning the mountains in droves. We sped around the curves, watching the mountain scenery ...

... and B the view is panoramic . We are surrounded by mountains still sprinkled with snow. Various stone villages cling together across the lower slopes and immediately in front is a steep walnut grove which falls away to Imlil. The sound is of rushing water and the smell in the air is animal manure. Morocco time is 9 1/2 hours different to Adelaide. We nearly fall asleep over our cous cous the first night we're so jet lagged. Breakfast is pretty simple out in the ...

... winding road first up to the highest point, then down through the mountains to the valley below. Stopped for coffee at a cafe, they had hideous stuffed camels (for sale I think) across the road and some nice jewellery and pottery. The weather was so beautiful when we stopped for lunch we were all able to strip off some layers and had to put the sunscreen on. We came close to Marrakech then headed up the mountain to the village ...

... hours up and over the Tizi n Tamatert pass, down the steep goat trailed slopes to Oumskra then to an even smaller and crazier town called Ikiss where we had to bribe an aggressive and enterprising kid to lead us out of the town then up and over yet another pass the Tizi Amsakrou and finally back to Imlil. The reward at the end of our hike was lazing in front of our blazing hot fire in our cozy Berber robes eating a delicious beef and date tajine, hot tea ...

J ai decide de faire un 4167m. Ce sommet est tres facile a monter, il suffit de marcher. De marcher dans la neige... Et oui meme au maroc on peut avoir de la neige. J avais 50 cm de neige et des congeneres de plus de 2m d epaisseur. C est assez sympathique de passer de la neige au soleil du jour au lendemain.

... it was time to venture to our local hammam and what an experience.! It was a small building half way up the hill, we paid our money and stripped down to our jocks and entered the steam chamber. We were directed to sit in one corner and the lady filled up buckets of hot water - splashed some on us and proceeded to scrub each of us down. It was pretty basic but we had a ball. Our rinse off was just a bucket of hot ...

... almost from the very beginning it was steep climbing. Everyone had trouble of some sort with their crampons in the first hour but we all managed to find a solution and keep going up. It was meant to be about 3 hours up and 2 back to the refuge and you'd spend about half an hour on top tooling around too, so if we wanted to get back to Imlil before sunset we had to move. The first hour wasn't too bad, steep but bareable and it felt good to be walking again ...

... the lush valley, a large pot of mint tea was brought out. Achmed demonstrated how he loved to pour tea - the Berber way, by raising the pot nearly a meter above the table, perfectly placing the steady stream of dark, steaming liquid into each cup. The v-e-r-y strong tea was soothing to our sore muscles. With a smile and a glint in his eye, Achmed blurted out "Berber whiskey!" Another superb Tangine dinner followed, this time it was made with mutton, spices and ...

... last price. So I said, well i'll give you 50DH or i'm leaving at which time he shook my hand and took the money. So about $5 and some change and I got another hat. I really didn't need the hat since I brought one but I really wanted to bargain for something. I am considering trying to buy flip flops since I have a pair here and they are getting dirty from walking around all day. I want something to bum around my hotel in after a shower. Around dinner time we decided ...

... orange juice stands an dperformers playing traditional music with a panoramic view of the city and the High Atlas Mountains in the background. I'm not doing much more today other than relax near my hotel. The stress of the last 2 days is still lingering. No more walking today. At 5pm I am supposed to meet a girl named Liz from New York that is currently on an around-the-world trip. It will be nice to have another person to wander around with.