Once again I find myself up in the mountains. This time I the aim of the trip is to conquer North Africa’s highest peak, Mount Toubkal. This trip has come about as a result of my expedition to Everest Base Camp last year. As Karl had come on many walking trips with me as part of my training, but never got to experience the finale at Base Camp, he was understandably keen to hike up a mountain a bit bigger than Ben Nevis. I was also keen to get some more use out of our expensive stack of walking paraphernalia. After throwing around some ideas we finally settled on Mount Toubkal, this was a slight compromise as I could have been halfway up Kilimanjaro by now.
Despite my best intentions I haven’t done any training for this trip, after months spent hiking, Spinning and Body Pumping last year, in preparation for Everest Base Camp, this year I’m lucky if I have made it to Bums n Tums once a week. Now that we have just completed day one I’m already beginning to regret not putting more effort into increasing my fitness levels. I just kept thinking that if I made it through 14 days in the Himalayas last year, I’m sure this trip will be fine. This blasé attitude may soon backfire on me.
We have booked this trek as an organised tour, so once again I find myself stuck with a bunch of strangers who we are forced befriend for the next 5 days. I always say I’m not doing an organised tour again, yet here we are. I have already seen a couple who boarded our plane from Manchester doing the same trek, just them and a guide. Why didn’t we just do that? Now we have to sit through night after night of arguments over how we to play 21 and what the ‘rules’ are for Sh*thead. The advantage this time is that I have Karl, and the general rule is that couples don’t have to mingle as much.
Today we have been taken by bus from Marrakech to the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. We had a steep 1hr walk before lunch when we arrived at our gite. This is a simply furnished guest house with dorm style rooms. Luckily there was enough space for me and Karl to have our own room. The outside terrace is lovely with some amazing views of the mountains. Although it’s simple, it is a lot nicer than I imagined, so I’m pleased to be spending 2 nights here. In the afternoon we went for a walk around the local village, nothing too strenuous. It felt nice to be out walking after spending the past 2 days starfished on a sun lounger.