Trekking Toubkal

Story 9/21:

2-day break off a 3-generation package-trip

Trekking Toubkal

2-day break off a 3-generation package-trip

March, 2002

The joy is bubbling in me. Gratitude. I feel it as tiny tickling in my fingertips, when I fill my lungs with the brisk mountain air. It is below zero, sun is shining from a clear blue morning sky and I am ascending from the summit of the highest peak in North Africa.

My happiness does not spring solely on the sense of achievement – which evidently is part of Alpinism. I just sincerely feel united – whole with the World. When I glance over the emptiness of dark grey peaks and occasional white stripes on them, I realize somehow the similarity of such places all over the Globe.

I feel really privileged to be able to be leaping and gliding down this volcanic gravel on this crisp new Moroccan day. I pass trekkers heading up and occasionally encourage some with the nice views awaiting at the top and them being “almost there”.

I go by the shelter I was able to enjoy last night – the CAF refuge i.e., the hut of the French Alpine Club. It was great. With only 170 dirhams – worth about 17 euros at the time – I got bunk bed, breakfast, two cups of sweat mint tea, one bottle of mineral water and 1 hour use of the gas burner to prepare my own dinner.

And naturally – as due to the approaching Easter, the hut was nicely crowded, there was no need to worry about waking up in an appropriate time for the ascent, as it would have been really difficult to oversleep, when tens of people start packing their gear in the swinging beams of headlamps.

Sleep before summiting tends to be short as nights often are calm and ground possibly firmer then. Usually those early starts do not bother me – it is part of the drill. And this time – on the day before – I had had really pleasant and long dreams in a small home like guest house in the village of Imlil – after a nice acclimatization walk in the surrounding forest.

Imlil is the last residence South of Toubkal reachable by car, so I was heading back there through the steep meadows, following the water channel. I hope to reach an early local bus to Marrakesh, as I am targeting to have enough time there to properly relax in a Turkish bath before taking a night bus to Agadir.

I had negotiated for myself these two days of trekking in the midst of a two-week package trip. I had actually left from Djema el-Fna with my hiking boots and backpack, when the rest of our three generations family party ascended to the tourist bus.

At the time the Parkinson’s disease had not yet cut away the pleasure of travelling from my dad.

Epilogue: My gratefulness rose from the sensation of being able to set in motion something inherited and also to be allowed to share it within three generations. Seeing my half-year-old daughter encounter with a little turtle on Moroccan garden paving reminded me of a photo my father took from my first trip aboard – me along with a Norwegian boy of my age, squatted by a tiny monkey cage on beach gravels of Rhodes. 

And now conflictedly – for the past years realizing, that maybe tourism and flying around the Globe is not the best of patrimonies.

Some background data:

Story:

Morocco: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco

Toubkal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toubkal

Toubkal National Park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toubkal_National_Park

Trekking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacking_(hiking)

Hammam, Turkish bath: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammam

Mountain hut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_hut

Environment:

Planetary resource consumption: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Overshoot_Day

Package tours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_tour

Flying and CO₂: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation

Questions – see links above, books, Internet or digital media for answers:

1. Tourism. Tourism is a large industry in many countries. Since 1970’s increasing part of the visitors have been international and arrived with airplanes. 2018 aviation produced 2,5% of global CO₂ emissions and all GHG (Green House Gases) considered and caused 3,5% of global warming. Clearly there are larger climatic problems, but as we consume about 1,7 times more renewable resources every year, than our blue planet can produce, we must start acting more sustainably on broad scale. Every percent count, since required 70% cannot be reached without systematic changes in our actions and operations.

So how could tourism be more sustainable? Sure, avoiding unnecessary daily washing of hotel towels and minimizing waste at buffet breakfasts is good. But should each of us consider bit harder, which flights are really necessary and how often they are “needed”. How could accommodation for tourists be more sustainable?

2. Trekking. Largest number of global tourists end up to urban areas, which is good, as there is infrastructure, that can handle large masses of people. Yet, it is possible to create sustainable paths and maintenance to wilderness, too. This aims in concentrating the human interference to certain routes, allowing then more undisturbed space for the animals and delicate nature. 

On the other hand, as human activities have launched the sixth extinction, we also need to act to slow it down. To do so, we need acceptance for the required actions of most people of the World. It easier to protect something, if you have experienced its value. So also urbanised people need to get a sense of beauty and uniqueness of the nature – weather in a park, shore, desert or a forest. Both on site and online.

What should be done to conserve these frontiers? Should we extend waste management and other human infrastructure there? Or should the access to be limited somehow? What else could be done?

3. Sustainability and internationality. One reason for tourism is getting away from the everyday “rat race”. To get fresh ideas and to experience something different. Thanks to globalization there are colourful ethnic minorities in most countries and the sense of the “exotic” does not require boarding a jet plane. There are indoor spas in the north and indoor skating rinks in the south. World music and movies can be seen all over and most varied international kitchens available at last in larger cities.

So, could be challenge a bit our urges for “something different”. Instead of flying for a long weekend to Istanbul, could we have “Turkish day” – with a steam bath and Mediterranean cuisine at a neighbouring city / town? Maybe combined to some suitable events available there? Imagination is one of the great powers of mankind. How could we deploy it to be more sustainable?

4. Discuss. Your view: What thoughts did rise in your mind having read the story, browsing through the background material and answering to the three questions above? Discuss with your pair.

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