Having read a blog article on Imlil earlier to-day, we thought we
would put some reality into the equation and also introduce readers
to the other (south) side of Toubkal, the highest peak
in the Moroccan High Atlas mountains.
Firstly for those of you not overly familiar with the geography
of the region, just
click on this link and a map should open up for you in a new
window/tab.
Imlil is the main starting point for trips to Toubkal. It's twin
if you like on the south side is Amsouzart. Although as the Lammergeier
flies it is barely 16km (10 miles) between these 2 points,
it can take around 5 hours drive and a few hundred km's to get
around to the south side from the north by road and then dirt-track.
Herein lies the reason for Imlil's "success" over
Amsouzart - it's proximity to Marrakech. Only last week this was
re-emphasised to us when we met people who had left London Gatwick
that particular morning on the EasyJet flight to Marrakech and were
having sitting down to lunch on the roof of the kasbah in Imlil
looking onto Toubkal's stunning north face!
Proximity
and popularity demand a price. The price Imlil pays is overcrowding,
high property prices (relative to other villages), hawkers
descending on tourists and trekkers the minute they get out of a
taxi which can often descend into a money-grabbing exercise. Some
books have called Imlil the "Chamonix of the Atlas".
Hopefully it will never get to that stage of development but it
certainly has gone past the point of no-return in committing itself
to the fortunes of a mountain just out of sight up the valley.
Hotels, guides, mule owners, porters, cafés, shops, tourist
boutiques, internet facilities - all within a couple of hundred
metres from beginning to end. Most hotels on the main strip are
building sites at the moment - extensions, new facilities, complete
overhauls.
Amsouzart on the other hand, whilst visited during the summer
months by trekkers doing the "Tour du Toubkal" doesn't
even have electricity (although it is coming) - never mind internet
cafes and luxury tourist hotels. The "price" the visitor pays is a
day's travel on some incredible roads over high mountain passes
(Tizi Tichka 2260m) before entering mountain valleys where one
counts the passage of time by falling leaves....
We don't pretend that by writing a few lines in a blog, it will
change people's habits of using Imlil as the main base for Toubkal.
Neither however can we pretend that it's something that gives people
the best mountain experience!
