Morocco (May-June 2016): From the Sirwa
Massif to the Mountains of Amezmiz
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mountaineering/trekking/travel webpage
This two-week, 200km+, trek took me from
the south of the Sirwa massif (which is part of the
Anti-Atlas mountain range) to the mountains of Amezmiz
(in the High Atlas range). I started the trek just south of the village of
Atougha located about 27km north-east of the town of Taliwine
(also spelled Taliouine) on the N10 road. The trek
ended in the village of Ameghras, near the town of Amezmiz, about 50km south-west of Marrakesh. The following
two pictures show the approximate itinerary (red lines) in Google Map (left)
and Google Earth (right). Click here
(.kmz file) to access all the recorded waypoints and placemarks in Google Earth. The red pins point to the start
and finish of the trek, the green pins are the campsites, the yellow pins are
the other GPS waypoints that I recorded during the trek, and the orange pins
are placemarks of major landmarks. For lack of space,
the Google Earth picture below includes no yellow pins and only some of the
orange pins.
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This
itinerary is covered by three 100K topographic maps Taliwine, Tizi-n-Test, and Amezmiz (click on these links to
upload them).
I
did this trek with Oumar Oulaidi,
a mountain guide from the valley of the Ait Bouguemez and a good friend, whom I have known for almost
15 years. See here
for more information about Oumar and how to contact
him. Between Atougha and Ijoukak
(located on the ″Tizi-n-Test″ road R203
connecting Marrakesh to Taroudant) we were helped by
two muleteers, both named Abderrahmane, and
their mule. In Ijoukak, we switched muleteer and
mule. Our new muleteer was named Mohamed. All three muleteers had been arranged
by Oumar.
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Oumar |
Abderrahmane #1 |
Abderrahmane #2 |
Mohamed |
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Click on the
links below to see pictures of the various sections of this trip:
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A remark on
trekking in the Atlas Mountains:
Over the past few years I have witnessed more changes in the Atlas
Mountains than in the previous 30-40 years. Almost all villages are now reached
by dust and sometimes paved roads. They are all connected to the electricity
network. These changes have many positive effects on local people and are
generally welcome by them. They have better access to health care. Their
children have better access to schools and more of them eventually continue
studies at the university level. However, this trend also impacts trekking. In
villages traditional adobe houses are progressively replaced by not so
beautiful concrete ones. Too often local people who have become richer after
moving to cities or abroad build large ugly houses in their home villages. As a
consequence, the beautiful traditional villages of the Atlas Mountains may soon
be a thing of the past. Even worse for trekkers, many former good trails have
been cannibalized by roads. Remaining trails are less frequently used and often
poorly maintained. Increasingly, avoiding roads during treks requires hiking
off trail. While it used to be relatively easy to trek with 100K topographic
maps without any guide, this is much less so now, as most roads do not appear
on these maps. Also, as mules are less frequently used by villagers, it is more
difficult to directly find and hire muleteers (except on very popular trekking
routes near Toubkal and Mgoun). A guide with good connections
may be needed.
