Morocco

[Rue]

 So my partner and I have always been fairly active and loved trekking walking. We used to maily walk to get to the bottom of climbs as my boyfriend was an active climber but his interests have moved on a it and now we walk for the sake of walking. Anyway we havn't done anything big for a while actually and we are planning to take a trip to Morocco in the late spring to trek up Jbel Toubkal.

Was wondering if anyone had done this? Whether anyone had any advice? We are still debating the pros and cons of going on a more organised and guided trip or just winging it and doing our own thing.

Any thought?

Cheers

[snowslider]

ask me next month    I'll be there for a week (only) in Feb' as a first time. I don't have a detailed itinerary yet but we'll be in the Toubkal area and Tizi n'Tacheddirt I think.

[Rue]

 Cool!! Let me know how it goes Are you doing it off you won back then?

[snowslider]

 Cool!! Let me know how it goes Are you doing it off you won back then?

Not as such, it's run by World Challenge as an in-house training trip for people who are going to be leading expeditions for them. It's also a good chance to get out there and do a bit of reconnaissance and see if it's somewhere I'd like to run trips to in future.

[Rue]

 Sounds good. I love planning trips.......its a bit of a distraction from work though!

[snowslider]

Have you looked at this site ? http://www.visitmorocco.com/index.php/eng

I've ordered the Lonely Planet guide as well, I've not seen it yet but it'll be brilliant like the rest of the series.

I'm just agonising over what sleeping bag to take, I can't get clear in my mind what night time temperatures are there in Feb',  does anyone know? up to 2000m I would think.

[snowslider]

just remembered, I was advised to get some jabs as well :

polio - low risk
tetanus - fairly important
diptheria - low risk

hep A
typhoid

The first three you can get as a triple jab, hep A is another jab and typhoid is an oral.

[Rue]

 Cool...thanks for the info

I think I have had all those already

[Matthew Millen]

I spent 4 days in Morocco just before Christmas and loved the place. Although the majority of the time was spent in Marrakesh (not ideal) we spent a night in the Atlas foothills where the scenery was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately one of my friends has hurt his knee so we couldn't get up into the mountains proper.

We used a travel guide (booked in the UK) when in the country to arrange all of the transport, i would definitely recommend you do the same to avoid suffering from any potential scams while in the country and take reduce stress.

We had excellent weather and could wear T-shirts during the day and even a jumper was enough in the evening (although we didn't got that high).

A few obvious (but still important) suggestions, stock up with bottled water for your walks and be careful with your valuables, cameras etc.

We found the combination of friendly people and scenery great though, i hope you do go and have a wonderful time.

Matthew

[ukmase]

I have just had my Hep A and tetanus boost ready for Jebel Toubkal.

[darksky]

alright ukmase.,i bet you cant wait to go can you.,dont forget to take plenty of photos, what am i saying of course you will lol..heres a photo of Mount Teide from down the street where i was staying.

[darksky]

And another from my hotel room.

[ukmase]

Ha it was taunting you from your hotel room saying


climb me

climb me

CLIMB ME

[snowslider]

I've got a couple of hundred photo's from last week in Morocco  Watch this space but it was pretty good

[snowslider]

I've knocked up a slideshow at http://snowslider.net/slideshows/morocco-photos/

We were out in the Jebel Saghru and Gorges du Dadès area walking between Berber villages. We used "campsites", I use the term loosely as they were patches of rocky ground with zero facilities, and a couple of gites which were basic in the extreme. We also used local guides and muleteers which makes life a bit easier and pushes money into the local economy.

I would recommend it, I'll be going back and running trips there I think. I've got an itinerary for a some gorge trekking, camel rides and pushing into the Sahara to watch sunset and sunrise.

One tip I would give is that I located a "toposource" format map for my Garmin GPS for Morocco : http://www.island-olaf.de/travel/marokko/gps.html