TOUBKAL

The craziness of Marrakech was swapped for the serenity and peace of the Atlas mountains. Having just completed the Camino we thought that the 26km trek to the top of Toubkal, the second highest peak in Africa, would be a breeze. The first day, a 10km walk to base camp, was no worries. We decided not to get a guide to save money but the path was full of mules and other tourists and we literally followed the mule poo. The second day was a 3km climb, at an incline of 900m, to the top which rose above the rest of the mountains to a daunting 4126m.

The clothes we had were not exactly what you would call mountain gear but we made do feeling the cold a bit more than others. Of course I was sporting my Converse and Elise powered on in runners and 2 layers of thin hippy pants. Elise did have a little freak out close to the top when we suddenly realised that we would be walking through SNOW. We reached a part of the climb that was covered completely in ice. Using our hands to pull ourselves up, so that we didn't slip, her hands became freezing cold and she started to lose it in a bit of a panic attack. She stopped in the middle of the climb, sat down on an icy slope, and began to cry telling me that she wanted to go back down. I couldn't convince her to move. Out of nowhere, a lovely Moroccan guide came back down to literally give her a hand and pulled her up through the icy path.

Once we were close to the top we looked down over the other mountains and we were really really scared. We had not thought about just how high 4126m was. Let me tell you it's really really high. None the less we composed ourselves and continued on to the peak. When we arrived at the top the sun was out and it was a beautiful day. We revelled in our victory for a while and had a lovely little lunch at the top. A feeling if immense pride ran through our veins and we felt invincible. We laughed like maniacs every few minutes, realising how crazy we were to make it with no preparation or guide. It could have just been the lack of oxygen being up so high but it was still amazing.

On the way down we accidentally got stuck in a tour group taking a different route to the way we came up. They adopted us for a while and were cool with us following them as we surfed through the rocks literally running down the side of the mountain. Elise was happy that we were avoiding the ice.

I saw snow for the first time, in Africa of all places, and only on the way down was I able to enjoy it. I threw snowballs at Elise and yelled at her to hurry up with her short legs, teasing her about freaking out. When we reached the bottom we met a young English guy who had fallen 20m from close to the top. He hit his head and had a whole bunch of gashes on his arms. Elise and I were very happy that we had each other and that we somehow luckily managed not to slip and fall at some point.