Читать книгу The High Atlas. Treks and climbs on Morocco's biggest and best mountains онлайн

31 страница из 60

The north flank of Jbel bou Nacceur

Outsiders had rarely come to the village, and the headman was far too scared to help us without authorisation. To stop us he said there were no mules, so we simply packed our rucksacks and set off to backpack at 14.00. That horrified them. On our heads be it. We put in 5 hours of sweaty labour to round into the Taouchguelt (Tawchgelt) glen, whose head was Bou Naceur, leaving a mere Ben Nevis equivalent to climb next day. Water was scarce, but we followed a donkey for an hour to a source. A shepherd made tea for us, and we gave him surplus vegetables (from now on we fought every ounce of the way) before a night that produced a saturating dew.

The first brew went on at 05.00. On our second hour the slope reared up. We followed a gully next to the main one, which entailed some scrambling on rock rough as the Cuillin of Rum. There were bumps galore in the snowy waste once up, so there was something of a tour to be sure of the highest, given 3326m. There were great views over to Iblane, and Tinesmet village, our next objective, lay in a green spot among the greys and browns. We felt the altitude a bit and Ali had a touch of snow blindness. We then, perforce, had a high bivvy, melting snow for water.