Trudging through rain to our mountain retreat
Trip Start
Feb 07, 2009
1
31
41
Trip End
Mar 19, 2009
Imlil,
Morocco
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
We passed through the High Atlas mountains covered in snow via the Tizi n'Tichka pass, an amazing steep 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
Mountain scenery
. We came close to Marrakech then headed up the mountain to the village of Imlil where we stored our luggage at a little cafe. AJ had chosen to ride a mule up the mountain because of his ankle but the rest of us were hiking, so we piled on our layers, loaded our day packs onto a mule and started trudging up the mountain through the mud, in the freezing rain.
It was quite a difficult hike about 45 mins, made really unpleasant because of the rain and cold. I don't think I really took in any of the surroundings.
Finally we arrived at the Gite Atlas, our stop for the night. Accommodation was pretty basic, shared toilets and large bedrooms - girls in one with 5 beds, boys in another with 7 beds. Toilets were downstairs and the light on the stairs didn't work so it made it interesting getting to the toilet during the night.
We stripped off our wet clothes (Sandra also now had wet socks as she'd thought we needed to take our shoes off when entering), put on dry things and headed downstairs (with blankets and sleeping bags) to the only room with a fire.
We stayed there (Mike hogged the fire but at least we got some of our clothes dry) for dinner and played some hilarious games (Celebrity Head where we stuck our names to our forehead with chewing gum and Abdul's crazy card game Bonjour Monsieur which I lost), then into bed and tried to stay warm and sleep.
