One day, I will visit the Atlas Mountains. My first steps in the Moroccan mountains look very promissing. I did not venture out far, just the internet. Maby you are interested in my findings as well. Have a look!
Eh, if you have some personal experiences to add to this page, please don't hesitate to inform me.
Like Graham Leach. He writes me about his visit to Morocco: "Back in 1994, I spent nearly 3 wonderful weeks in Morocco with a young Dutch lady from Amsterdam. We inter-railed from Amsterdam via Belgium, France amd Spain, crossing the water to Tangiers.
"Tangiers was not a pleasant place, too seedy and dangerous, but the further south we travelled into Morocco, the safer it became and the more intoxicating the place. I loved the country ; the towns and villages were so different from anything seen in Western Europe and the scenery and outdoor life had simply stunning scenery. Best of all, it was so unspoiled. I can not say enough good words about the place.
"We walked up Toubkal and took in the scenery from Tangiers/ Fes in the north to south of the Atlas, close to where the Draa valley meet's the Algerian border. In the east we visited Casablanca and Marrakesh." Lucky traveler indeed.
Many travel agencies offer trekkings. Most of them only stock the N'goun and the Toubkal massif, ranges in the High Atlas that pass the 4000 meter.
The country is well covered by 1:50.000 maps. They are for sale in Rabat:
| Ministère de l'agriculture Division de la Cartographie 31, Avenue Moulay Al Hassan Rabat |
It's a ten minutes walk from the central station. The office is open to the public during office hours. So far, so good, but don't expect to get the maps readily into your hands. After some friendly talk, they sold me two maps of the Toubkal region near Marakech, one 1:50.000 and the second 1:100.000. I managed to get a Catalogue map (see the two outprints below). The other maps are only sold when you write an official application, which should be addressed to the Chef du Bureau des Ventes. Some reference to officials will probably help greatly. But I'm not too sure here, because I didn't try it. My fear is, they sell to guided tours only, and not to individuals. If you know more, please tell me.
Jacquemont from France sent me an e-mail, saying maps are for sale in Paris. A map shop - l'Asrolabe 46 rue de Provence, tel: 01 42 85 42 95, fax: 01 42 82 11 62 . has got all of them, 1/50 000, 1/100 000. I didn't check it out, but give it a try.
Graham Leach has an address in London. "Concerning maps" he writes, "Stanfords in London sold (and may continue to sell) 1:50,000 maps of the Toukbal region. I don't know the exact address, I think it is Long Acre? just off Charing Cross road." (It's Stanfords, 12 - 14 Long Acre, Charing Cross, London). It is not difficult to get maps of the Toubkbal region, generally.
Will Ham has been trekking in Morocco twice and also fell in love with the country. "Maybe you know this already", he writes me,"but since you asked for any suggestions - maps of popular trekking areas can be bought from some hotels in Marrakech where many people start before heading off into the Toubkal region. Also the little village of Imlil (directly underneath Mt Toubkal but proabably not on many maps) has a shop that sells maps - or at least did last summer. Some serious haggling will have to be done though as they know that they are valuable! Hope you get there some time."
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Grid reference to the maps is a bit confusing. Use the scheme below. For example, the 1:50.000 Toubkal map "Jbel Toubkal" is referenced by the number NH-29-XXIII-1a. The 1:100.000 map is referenced by NH-29-XXIII-1.
Two other places for maps:
November 1998 - Henk Nouws
