Day 1 with Younes Bounhar
In May 2010, I embarked through a 6 day trek through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The country of my birth, yet pretty much unknown to me. I grew up in Morocco until the age of 18, yet I had never had a chance to discover it, let alone appreciate its amazing beauty. I was planning to start giving photo tours as part of my business offering and decided that there was no better place to start than my own country. I was joined on this tour by a client of mine, who came along for a unique experience.
The journey begins in the quiet valley of Ait Bougmez at the base of the High Atlas Mountains (if by base you mean an altitude of 1870m above sea level of course). For the first couple of days of this trek, I really wanted us to start comfortably and get a chance to acclimate to the higher altitude. So, we chose to stay in the very lovely auberge of Dar Itrane. From there, we took to explore the surrounding land of wheat fields, orchards…and goats. On this hazy day, we set out to climb a nearby hill, which provided a fantastic overlook of the entire valley.
The hill also happens to be the site of a communal granary dating back to a measly 700 years(!). The granary has long stopped serving its original purpose, and is now home to a nice fella who invited us into his modest digs for a wonderful glass of mint tea (you can’t turn down an offer to drink tea in Morocco). Mohammed got around to show us the place, quite fascinating with its little tunnels and individual grain stores, and topped it off with a sweet visit to atop the granary. What a view!
The haze continued to blanket the entire valley, so we decided to call it a day and headed back down to the village, just in time to catch a wonderful tagine for dinner.
