Hiking on the roof of North Africa: a trek to Morocco’s tallest peak

Hiking on the roof of North Africa: a trek to Morocco’s tallest peak A fabled boutique hotel in the Atlas mountains makes a stunning base for hikes to spectacular viewpoints C oming up the footpath from Imlil, Hussein and I step aside to let a laden mule go past and I look back. On the wooded lower slopes of the valley are clusters of tall houses, some plumed with wood smoke. There appears to be a lot of building work going on, some of it to repair the damage caused by the 2023 earthquake . The sound of a concrete mixer comes cutting through the cool mountain air mixed with birdsong and human voices. Turning back to face south, I can see the Atlas mountains, austere and aloof, a few snow patches on the upper slopes. That’s where we are going, to the top of Toubkal at 4,167 metres, the highest peak in North Africa. Hussein has been a guide in this beautiful Moroccan valley all his adult life. “Most people here work in tourism now,” he says, waving a greeting to a muleteer who is passing us. The man is clutching the tail of his animal to steady himself up the steep track. “Twenty years ago everyone grew walnuts and subsistence food,” Hussein says. “Now we’ve still got walnuts, but we’ve also planted apple trees as a cash crop. It leaves time for the tourist work.” Is all the change good? He nods, confidently. Not everyone likes change, of course, and it’s possible that a country such as Morocco, where half the population is under 30, has an advantage in this respect. There just isn’t so much dewy-eyed, middle-aged, nostalgia for the past. We move up the mountain, passing the little holy shrine of Sidi Chamharouch where the cafes sell freshly squeezed orange juice and the tumbling river is almost pristine, but not quite. I take off my boots and wade into the cold water to grab some discarded plastic bottles. Hussein and two other guides jump in to help. “City people,” they complain. “You might think that in a holy place, they would try to be clean,” I observe, which ma...