Most Inspirational Moment
The 10 hour 32 kms walk on our last full day in the High Atlas. It was difficult but very rewarding, we were extremely lucky with the weather for the full trip and the ruggedness of the mountains is just something else. The colours were beautiful. The cook from our gite came all the way with his mule to the semi-frozen lake where we had our break and cooked lunch for us there that was nutritious and tasty as always. I also enjoyed the 4-hour walk on our second day, it was reasonably hard and the views on the top were breathtaking.What wasn't so inspiring though was the fact that the first walk (the 7-hour one) felt like hiking on someone's farm. The valleys are reasonably built up by having several villages neighbouring each other, the hills are used for farming sheep or chopping wood. Our first walk was interrupted considerably by dogs who were guarding the various sheel pens. Even if there had been some wildlife, they would have been scared away by the dogs. The walk itself is reasonably strenuous and challenging, the mountains are gorgeous but it feels like being a rambler on someone's farm rather than being out on an adventure.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Hassan is a very warm, genuine and knowledgeable group leader. Not once did he try to limit our options just to make his own life easier. He is very patient and he is without a doubt a very good man.I didn't think much of our guide in Marrakech though, he showed us a couple of sites and took us to shops where he gets his commission. He didn't give us any kind of orientation so we were a bit lost first when our free time came.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Take into consideration the amount of time spent in Marrakech, there isn't that much to look at. A lot of historic sites were either destroyed by succeeding dynasties over the centuries or didn't survive due to poor building practices.We arrived in Marrakech on Sunday and had a free evening, had a full day there on Monday with the afternoon/evening free again after being guided around in the morning a bit. Then we travelled the full morning on Tuesday and arrived in the mountains in the afternoon, again with a lot of spare time on our hands. We didn't start the actual hiking until Wednesday.I think it's quite difficult to guage from the field notes the amount of time you need to kill until you can get your hiking boots on properly. It would have been better if we had been able to leave Marrakech Monday afternoon and start hiking on Tuesday. It felt like we were kept waiting for the bit that we all booked the holiday for in the first place.Beware of the hotel you get booked in in Marrakech too, Hotel Oudaya is awful.
![Review Centre]()
Reply from Exodus
Thank you for your valued feedback. We have decided to use a new hotel for all Exodus trips to Marrakech in 2013.
