La Passe

"Guys, do you want to go on a trek? There is a three day trek here from Imlil to Setti Fatma in the High Atlas mountains... it says easy to medium, we can handle that right?"

"Yeah, definitely."

How very wrong we were...

Day 1 Imlil to Tacheddirt

We set off bright and early with our small rucksacks and our faithful guide Houssain, a man of indeterminate age but with scarily youthful legs, for the first day of our trek, drugged up with imodium after a night of jippy tummies.

Bounding up the path out of Imlil we felt active, excited and proud of ourselves. We started to ascent sharply and it began to feel more medium than easy but refusing to be phased we struggled on regardless. Half way through we started to feel a bit sorry for ourselves until a little mule heavily loaded with other trekkers belongings passed us being smacked by the muleteer. Life could be worse. Tired, clammy and with sweat tashes all round we started telling eachother that it was all worth it. With the surrounding scenary it didnt take much persuasion. Craggy, snow topped moutains flowing into lush green river valleys made for some very dramatic scenary and trekking with Jebel Toukbal in sight , North Africas tallest mountain, was very special but we were content with walking in its shadow.

When we reached the top we felt pretty good, except that Ellie had a twinge in her groin and Kates knees were playing up. The hard part was surely over. Then Houssain pointed out our destination for tomorrow. It was the Tizi n Tacheddirt or "La Passe" as he called it and it is safe to say it struck fear into our hearts. Rising to 3200m we realised that tomorrow would be the "medium" day. Maybe we should have turned back then.

Being the stubborn and optimistic girls that we are, we continued the rest of the days trek, trying not to look directly at it. Ignorance is bliss.


Day 2 Tacheddirt to Timichii via "La Passe"

We knew what we had to do, we could see it laughing and pointing at us. It was now just the small matter of actally doing it. Despite syking ourselves up mentally we remained extremely unprepared for what was about to happen. We set off at 7am, quickly began to ascent and it stayed that way for the next three and a half hours.

Half way up things had taken a turn for the worse. Ellies groin injury resulted in her dragging one leg behind her, Kates knees refused to let her put any weight on them and I was unaware of gradually getting extremely burnt. The air got thinner, we were finding it difficult to breathe, and morale was extremely low, this was and would continue to be the most difficult physical test of our lives. The silence and the surroundings were beautiful but it was difficult to enjoy them when all you are concentrating on is putting one foot in front of the other, all you are thinking is "just one less step" and all you can hear is your heart thumping in your ears.

But we made it and enjoyed the biggest feeling of relief and the best Coke of our lives in front of breathtaking views.

Assuming downhill would be easier was foolish as we stumbled and skidded our way down paths clinging precariously to the moutainside. Eventually, three elderly ladies arrived at Timichii, dragging their knuckles on the floor and their sorry arses to bed for the rest of the afternoon.

Day 3 Timichii to Setti Fatma

Woke up to find that we could barely stand let alone walk. Despite this major problem, we set off. The walk was a lot easier but our hearts, minds and legs had officially given up. We weaved our way through the river valley, passing through villages that seemed to be built out of the hillside and lost in time. Four hours later we arrived in Setti Fatma and stumbled nto the nearest hotel whch thankfully was cheap because I believe that we would have paid anything. We dipped our swollen and blistered feet into the river that meandered through Setti Fatma, the river that we had followed all the way from its mountain source and agreed that that was definitely medium to hard.