Mostly a driving day today, as we left the desert landscape and drove into the mountains. The road was windy and precarious, but Omar, our driver, did a great job navigating it as we climbed higher and higher. We hooked up the iPods and blasted some old-school Mowtown, which had everyone dancing in their seats, including the driver.
Late afternoon, we reached our destination, the town of Imlil. This is as far as the road goes in the National Park near Mount Toukbal, Morocco’s – actually North Africa’s – highest peak. From Imlil, we hiked up for about 45 minutes to the tiny village of Aremd, our stop for the night. Some people opted to ride mules instead of hiking. I probably should’ve done that, since even though the hike was fairly easy, the altitude made it hard to get air in my lungs. Not to mention, the path was covered in mule, erm, excrement. (Trying to put that politely). It was really pretty, though, high in the mountains with a rushing river down below. Fairly cold, though; out came the fleece and the tuques for the first time since the Sahara.
Our guesthouse for the evening was camp-style, with multi-share mattresses in each room and bathrooms outside and downstairs. We had tea and took a short walk around the village before having dinner with our host family. It was a good place to just breathe in the mountain air and chill out for a night.