Went to Morocco: Hiked the High Atlas Mountains

We spent a week in Morocco earlier this month, mostly in Marrakech. When I booked the trip, I thought it would be fun to get out into the countryside. I'm SO glad I did - it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

I booked a two-day trip with Atlas and Sahara Tours, and they were super. They picked us up at our Riad in Marrakech, and drove us to the horse-trekking village. We picked up our horses and followed our guide up a hill on a windy little road. The views were excellent and the horses were very entertaining. Charlie's horse kept trying to nip the one in front as he thought we were going too slowly, and mine would dawdle and then trot to catch up. I am NOT a particularly good horsewoman...

After 3 hours on the horses, we were picked up again and driven to our mountain riad, where we had a delicious tagine overlooking the mountains. It was insanely beautiful and the air was so clear and clean.

Thus revived, our guide took us on a 2-hour hike, up past a waterfall, through a berber village, and back down the mountain to our Riad, where we had a break and then a cooking class. PHEW!

This was at 2000m above sea level, halfway up a mountain. At least they have hammam and bread!

These views...

The next morning we had a hearty breakfast (so much bread! and yogurt!), and then set off on a longer hike.

We went all the way up to the snow line, and I was so proud of myself.

This shop proudly declared itself Cheaper than ASDA. It wasn't open so we couldn't check for ourselves!

Caterpillars in the trees - they fall to the ground when they are warmed by the sun and crawl off to become butterflies.

These VIEWS. And that SKY. It was the most incredible colour.

 SNOW!

The view back down the valley:

Happy hikers!

More snow!

And then we had a very hearty lunch, with tomato salad and the most amazing meatball tagine with poached eggs on top. YUM.

It was truly excellent, and incredibly relaxing and head-clearing.