Atlas Mountains, Morocco

For the past couple of weeks I have been leading an expedition for World Challenge taking a group of 13 young people (challengers) from The Newark Academy to Morocco.  On arriving in Marrakech we took in the sights, sounds and snake charmers of the famous square and then got straight down to business of scoping out our forthcoming project which was to redecorate a school classroom in a township called Asni approximately 45kms from Marrakech.
For the next 7 days the team completed the project to a very high standard and also integrated well with the local community, playing sport and learning the Berber language.

Looking back to Imlil

On completion of the project we moved further up the Imlil valley to begin a 4 day trek over to Tacheddirt.  The Imlil valley is the start point for many trekking trips up into the Toubkal region. There are a number of gites to stay at and vary in price.  
The 'high' point of our trek was reaching 'Tizi a Tacheddirt' at 3175m where we had lunch at the Col before returning to our campsite.  Campsite facilities are basic, latrines are dug behing rocks and washing takes place in the nearby river.  Our food throughout was provided by our in-country chef, Mohammed, and was excellent, usually rice or past with salad and fish for lunch then in the evening cous-cous and Tagine.  Every now and then he would treat us with doughnuts and mint tea in the afternoon.  Our in-country guide, Omar, stayed with us throughout the two weeks and was an excellent source of information as well as being able to translate for us, but we did work hard to converse as best we could in French to immerse ourselves into the community.
Overall an excellent two weeks and one both I and the challengers really enjoyed.
If you would like to see more pictures of this trip please visit the Mountainexploits Facebook page.