Account of the RifCom Atlas to Sahara Challenge Nov 2011

by Gillie Revill

Snuffling of mules in the dark, bright starry skies, deep red rocks, mud houses, brightly dressed laughing Berber children……all added up to a truly memorable experience! 40 of us set off, all with different expectations perhaps of what constituted a ‘challenge’. For some, the walk itself, for others the prospect of camping out for several nights with few creature comforts. In my case I realised by day 2 that it didn’t matter if the phone and watch battery died, couldn’t find my hairbrush and hadn’t packed a mirror anyway! Thank goodness for baby wipes though!

So where did we go? After the Marrakesh Express disgorged us early on the Saturday morning, Matt Butler from Adventurebug Ltd met us with a bus to take us into the foothills of the High Atlas. Breakfast at Imlil village, in the shadow of Mt Toubkal was our first introduction to mint tea, and the eccentricities of village toilets (head torches necessary, own paper and don’t breath!) Then we got to meet the mules and Muleteers, decided what to put into day packs (water, baby wipes, nibbles, layers of spare clothing) and – Gulp – off we set in single file up…and up…….and up. The first few hours were a tough introduction to climbing a rocky mule path, but the views were staggering: deep red clay rocks, Berber villages hanging off steep terraced hillsides, and luckily mild sunny weather. Gradually the mule train effortlessly surged past us, bearing the tents, cooking utensils and all our bags, till they made camp high up on the open plateau of Aoudal-n-Ikrkae ready for our late lunch. By the time we’d collapsed onto brightly coloured Berber rugs on the floor of the community tent, and kicked shoes off to eat a delicious hot meal, moving on that day didn’t seem like such a great idea! So we settled for putting up the 2-man tents there instead (with many a mule trying to peek inside) surrounded by a few random sheep and goats, small river close by, and got to grips with the idea that there really weren’t going to be any hot showers or privacy in a small tent! The temperatures dropped ferociously after sundown- but the night sky made up for it.

Day 2: Getting up with a headtorch is not as easy as you might think, nor is cleaning your teeth in a strong breeze with curious mules still blundering about, but by sunup most of us were fully dressed and ready for coffee in the community tent. Deep sleep hadn’t been a option for many, for even with ear plugs there are a lot of sounds that carry in silent places….mostly laughter as folk staggered about trying to have a midnight pee without tripping up! Once again the muleteers packed up the camp and still managed to overtake us quickly as we traversed the Atlas high range pastures, with stunning coloured rocks by the trailside, and numerous flocks of long haired sheep and goats. A brief diversion was a mini snowball fight, as the previous week’s shower had left a few patches by the wayside! High above us the peaks remained white, but luckily the skies stayed blue and unthreatening.

Eventually we reached the village of Warzasate for lunch (yes, chicken tagine again!) then followed a very long descent down a drovers’ trail on rough rocky ground, but through beautiful oak and juniper forests. By the time we reached the campsite it was already time for those headtorches again.

Although by a river in a pretty valley, night 2 definitely was a challenge. The farmer had already ploughed his field, so our muleteers had first to flatten the furrows before pitching the tents. A strong wind enjoyed playing with us amateurs as we struggled to get bed rolls and kit into the tiny tents without letting in any more dust! Luckily I’d smuggled along a small bottle of fortified ginger wine, which, when shared with brilliantly tolerant tent-mate Jane, hit the spot a treat and made the whole experience bearable. Just. You can imagine our reaction when we learned that guides Matt and Tom had happily spent the night out lying on the mud, star gazing in the gale force winds!

Day 3 had to get better…..I started out with a bandaged knee (old ski wound didn’t like the rocky downhill trails) and a hefty dose of ibuprofen, but felt much better once we climbed again into a beautiful gorge of the river Zat and up to the plateau of Afra. The scenery was mind bogglingly stunning – waterfalls, meadows of alfalfa cultivated by remote Berber villages, trees starting to change to vivid autumn foliage; and some of us were even tempted to plunge into icy rockpools – well, those same mad youthful guides did anyway! In one village the children poured out of their classroom to stare at these curious looking folk with trekking poles and sunhats, received little gifts of crayons etc with huge delight – and whilst they looked well fed and happy, their school facilities were woeful and must be freezing in winter. I should confess at this point that after 4 hours of climbing I allowed a friendly mule to give me a ride for just an hour, to rest the knee, and very regal I felt too sitting on top of all the baggage! Then after lunch came the most challenging stretch of terrain as we approached the Tichka Pass at 2260m…..a very narrow path crossing slopes of grey scree and the odd dry waterfall course, with a steep drop off to the left. Local guide Muhah ran up and down the line of trekkers urging everyone on, and we just managed the crest as dusk fell. After that, transfers in small buses for a couple of hours in the pitch black to take us into the Ounila Valley, on the edge of the Sahara itself.

Day 4: Our campsite on night 3 was on a high, rocky and bleak plateau, with biting cold winds but wonderful clear skies. A few had bravely pitched the tiny 2-man tents, while all the girls had decided to create a cozy dormitory in the community tent. By now we were experts with the baby wipes ablutions and had totally given up worrying what our hair looked like! Our last night in a tent, so the cooks had given us a special performance of singing and drumming after supper – an unforgettable aural and aromatic experience! Once on the trail in the morning, the landscape quickly amazed us with its dramatic buttresses, scoured ravines and harsh, blood red swathes of colour. Down in the valley below the Berbers cultivated every last centimetre of terrain with intricate irrigation systems, and in addition to date palms there were patches of alfalfa, pomegranates, corn, olives, cabbages and kayle.

Legs were getting a lot tireder however, a few with knee and back aches but somehow we all lurched on, enjoying lunch on a river bank, refusing to give up. As dusk approached, still Muhah in his red bandana strode ahead towards our final stop at Ait Benhadou (where they filmed Laurence of Arabia, Gladiator, the Mummy and Indiana Jones). Crossing and re-crossing river beds, jumping ditches (yes, a few fell in!) finally, finally we rounded a corner and entered Town!

We had done it: 100kms in 4 days!
To hear how we celebrated……….read on!

Oh the joy of bedrooms, beds, showers and sitdown toilets! I shall never take these for granted again! There may not have been enough hot water for all, but just water coming out of a tap was exciting! Also very exciting for me was the arrival of the Backup Team: Tim and sister Georgie, with a sack of wine! That evening there was much drum playing from the waiters, belly dancing and drinking from the trekkers!

Some of the highlights of our Post Challenge days:
We climbed to the top of Ait Benhadou with huge desert vistas in all directions….big doesn’t begin to describe it. Then by bus on to the oasis Skoura Palmerie, saw ancient Kasbahs, visited the region where they grow roses of all things, (and have a huge festival in May) and make all kinds of potions and perfumes based on roses. We saw the Todra Gorge with its dramatic towering cliff walls (and eejits trying to climb it!) visited a Berber house and drank yet more mint tea before of course getting involved in carpet buying (no point in trying to resist it ‘make me a good offer’). For me the highlight had to be arriving at the Erg Chebbi dunes, just 20kms from the Algerian border, and riding by torchlight across the dunes to an oasis camp – an hour takes a long time on a camel! The Bedouin style camp was huge fun, and I’m afraid to confess our group totally let its collective hair down and joined in the singing, drumming and dancing by firelight under the stars! One lady even found herself atop a dune at midnight trying to explain in poor French to a camel herd how her i-phone app worked to track the stars! Some of us managed to climb the dunes at sunrise to watch the sun come up – funny how ice cold the sand is at 0530. But great spectacle. Then with numb bums we had to get back on the camels to ride out again – ouch! After that, back on the buses, we stayed a night at Ouarzazate which boasts a Hollywood film studio, then on to Marrakech, more bartering in the souk, and so to the train station and the Express to Tangier, ferry to Tarifa….. and home.

Would I do it again………you bet!