Today we left the pre-desert country for the magnificent High Atlas Mountain landscape, crossing the Tizin’Tichka pass at 2260m.

Along the way we made a few more ‘WC and coffee’ stops. Our first stop included a visit to an ‘Amlou’ presentation. We watched as some women demonstrated how they crushed almonds and extracted the oil. Then we were led into the ‘showroom’ (sales room?) and shown all the wonderful products that were made from the oil extracted from almonds.

Our next stop was at Zerkten. Across the road from the restaurant was a parking lot for tourist busses, from which tourists might view the mountains and maybe buy some souvenir trinkets from the sellers lining the street.

We headed into the Toubkal National Park, passing through small villages on winding mountain roads, and finally, after 5 hours in the minivan, arrived at the village of Imlil. We had repacked our luggage, putting only what we might need for our overnight stay up in the mountains in our backpacks. We left the rest of our luggage in the van, where our driver would spend the night watching over it. Our backpacks were loaded onto the backs of a couple of mules who would take them up to our mountain gîte.

And so began our 1-hour hike from Imlil up to the little village of Aremd. The hike was great! Not too strenuous, and although the air was cool, the climb was uphill enough so that we were not cold. There was snow in the mountains all around us. The village of Aremd is in the shadow of the third highest mountain in Africa.

Soon we arrived at our mountain gîte (a small, simple house). Our backpacks were already in the cabin, and our rooms were assigned to us by our tour guide. Accommodation here was multi-share, with four to six beds in each room. Dave and Marylou would get their own room. The four remaining men shared a room, while the women were divided into 2 more bedrooms. Each room had a small portable heater. All of us would share the 4 bathrooms and 3 showers.

Out on the patio, our host welcomed us with glasses of hot tea and a couple of big bowls of popcorn.

Michael and Lisa (the ‘Aussies’) and Naomi and I went for a walk through the small village and up into the hills. Men were herding their goats from off the roofs of their buildings into smaller ‘pens’ for the night. Mules also were herded home along the narrow rocky trails. Young children were kicking a soccer ball around in the ‘town square’. Women were busy cooking supper, some on an outdoor fire of little sticks.

When we got back to our gîte we sat down at two tables and our host brought out a dinner of delicious soup and bread, followed by a big dish of couscous and chicken. Fresh local orange slices served as dessert.

A workout on the trail up the mountain, fresh air, a big homemade dinner, and cozy blankets to keep us warm in the crisp cold night air — it didn’t take long until we were in our beds, doing our best to snore in harmony.