29th of September - Morocco - Getting to the venue

Wont be posting so many pictures these next days. Internet is too slow. Will be adding more as soon as I can.

The day started off super chill. I had set the clock for 07:15 (8:15 back home) and got up at 8. Super rested, as in no traces of tiredness anywhere in my system. Wow... been a while.

Breakfast was French style, jam, juice and coffee, bread and pancakes. Being gluten allergic I have my own bread with me. The coffee at Riad Diana is known to be very good and actually it was. VERY good. No fuss, no explanations to get enough of it for a big cup and not too strong so as not to resemble espresso. Ben if you're reading this, Morocco is where we need to go to get real coffee! And a whole can of it for breakfast.

Last year in the mountains of Italy it took us days to get it right at one of the hotels where we were staying, but to their credit, they listened and adjusted into the biggest cafe lungo ever. It was fun actually.
In the French mountains this summer we went with our lessons from Italy and got double allongé, sometimes three.

Ok, enough of breakfast.
The meetup with the group was at 16:00 at the airport.
I spent a few hours at the Riad reading and working (instead of hiking and sweating in town - will have time for that next week) before heading back to the airport.

There I met up with half of the group. Most of the attendees are from the UK, and a couple from Ireland and the Netherlands. Most are medical doctors, but there's one med. student and one lay person. The other half of the group came later in the evening. I haven't met them yet.

The distance to Kasbah du Toubkal was about 70 km, but took about 1,5 h to drive. The roads were quite rough. It seemed like it had been raining not too long before we passed. There was a river on the side of the road and it was red with sediment. Red like the ground and the mountains around. Fascinating.

Arriving in Imlil the air was a tad chillier than in the lowlands. Wearing a fleece sweater was actually comfortable. Until we started walking that is. There was a short, but steep ascent up to the venue. Luckily there were porters awaiting us with donkeys to carry our backpacks to the Kasbah. It was getting dark and we could hear the local mosque in evening prayer. The air was very humid so the short walk quickly turned sweaty. The short ascent had me totally out of breath and I couldn't help wondering how on earth I would survive the actual ascent to Jebel Toubkal.

Arriving at the Kasbah we were offered water perfumed with rose to wash our hands and a date to replenish the energy we had used on the walk - A Moroccan tradition, of which the rose water was repeated before each meal. And more sweet mint tea of course.
The Kasbah is a very comfortable space hosted by local berber people. They do not want to be seen as a hotel, more like a hospitality center. Local tradition is important and the food served is local.

https://www.kasbahdutoubkal.com/home.html

We spent our nights in dormitories. There were 9 girls in my room. I had one corner of the lower room with Carleen. Dani, Miranda and Hillary had the other side. 5 girls stayed on the upper level. I had an empty bed beside mine where I could store all my stuff. It's funny how quickly things turn into a mess as soon as a backpack is opened.

Dinner was traditional Moroccan style, soup for the pre-course, lamb and vegetables for the main course and something that resembled an apple pie for dessert, topped with ... suspense... sweet mint tea....

Tomorrow the actual course will being. I'm looking forward to it :-)

28th of September, Friday - Morocco - Getting To Marrakesh

So the actual trip toward Marrakesh started already on Thursday evening. I'd been in quite a hurry to be done with work, drive home, fix the last stuff and get to the airport, but luckily there was enough time for a cup of coffee when I arrived.
It was already quite dark when my plane started off towards the runway. The lights on the field were quite festive actually.
I expected a bouncy take off since it had been so stormy all day, so much so that my little Peugeot was thrown from side to side by the wind on the drive home. But during lift off there was not a stir in the air to shake out anything from my adrenal glands. Oh well, bummer.
I spent the flight reading my pre-course bundle, a bit about wilderness medicine and what it entails. I haven't had time to prepare for the course adequately - I don't have time Now, actually I don't have time to go on this trip even... but the happy lobe in the brain needs some food from time to time.... Well.. this year its been more like time and time and time and again.

Of course I forgot my toothpaste so that had to be bought on arrival at the hostel in Copenhagen. I stayed at Danhostel Amager, a pretty OK and cheap place for short stays. All kinds and ages of people stay there, everywhere from teenage backpackers to middle age couples, families with kids or the odd business man. I was unlucky with my roommate at the dorm, though and had trouble sleeping due to either loud snores or flickering light from her surfing all night.

Well, bleary eyed and in pitch blackness I got a cab at 0430 in the morning and got to the airport in good time. I decided to get some Dirhams and Euros there. I have no idea if the price was OK or not, but preferred to have that part done in time, since I had no idea what possibilities there would be at my destination airport.

The flight to Paris took 2 hours and I slept most of the way. At CDG airport I had time to get some breakfast and the Starbucks there actually had glutenfree panini, I've never seen that before. Made my day.

The next flight was 3 hours or so. I managed to cover some more pre-course reading, hypothermia, altitude sickness and frost bite. Interesting reading. Anne-Sofie, if you're reading this, I think you'd enjoy these courses...

Upon landing in Marrakesh I realized I should've brought more summer clothing!! I've only planned for the mountains - Fjällräven hiking pants and Haglöfs shell jacket, and of course a fleece sweater, but Marrakesh of course is a hot city in the lowlands.

All the buildings are a shade of red-pink and to my eye they look as if they are not finished. I mean like they build so that they might add on to the top at any time. I'll add a picture later. People were walking in shorts and t-shirts and I came there looking like someone who is about to spend a week in a Norwegian forest... and the sense-moral of this post is....

I was sweating profusely by the time I got to my hotel, after trying to bargain for the price of the cab (its supposed to be done that way some say) and failing. I think I should've waited longer before trying, but at that point I just wanted to get to the hotel, Riad Viva.
There it turned out that they had booked me for the wrong date. The receptionist was very, very embarrassed and sat me down with some mint tea as she super quickly found a room for me at a sister hotel and someone to carry my luggage there, a free taxi ride for tomorrow and a free massage for next weekend when I'm back at the hotel.

At the other hotel, Riad Diana, they again sat me down with some mint tea to "un-stress" me. Funny....
So, now I'm finally in my room, enjoying a quiet evening before tomorrow, when I'll be meeting up with the crew for the wilderness course in the mountains :-)








https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WQQdwLCeryHdz_SlRYlwRiUWz5qXPZ9u

Pre-Morocco 4 - Just about done

So, my old backpack is packed and quite tightly stuffed. I'm bringing my retro Haglöfs 45 L backpack. Some (and sometimes I too) would argue that it's waay too small for any kind of traveling, but it has served me so well for many a year. I bought it when I was 19 and thought that I would go inter-railing with a friend. We ended up being more dreamers than not, though, and the backpack stayed in my closet for a while until I really realized how great it was and now it has been with me on the other side of the Atlantic ocean and most every country I've visited... and it has traveled without me too. A friend borrowed it to Ghana for 6 months once, so it has been to Africa before I ever thought of going there.

It's a really old backpack now, but I'm so attached to some of it's features that I haven't been able to find anything worth the expense of replacing it. It's still water repellant to some degree and ridiculously durable. It has a rain cover attached to a top compartment, has broad, comfortable straps, zippered front opening, opening in the bottom to the main compartment, possibility to separate the lower portion of the main compartment and it's easy to attach stuff to the outside and those things will fit inside the rain cover. It does have those silly pockets on the sides however, but that is not enough of a reason for getting a new bag.


I complained in the last post that I couldn't find any smart coffee for traveling, but then I stumbled upon a "coffee bag" as in "tea bag" kind of coffee in the store. I'm pretty excited to find out what kind of coffee these will bring. This coffee brand is quite good, so I have high expectations. On the other hand, I don't know about the water I'll be using. The coffee might taste quite different every day depending on if I'm scooping something up from a pond and through the mini Sawyer or if it's tap water. Actually I'm pretty much unsure of the conditions at the refuge, or Kasbah, I'll be staying at. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. ;)

Ok so, I'll write the next post when I'm in Marrakesh the day after tomorrow.

Cya :-)

Pre-Morocco 3 - Packing, packing, packing

So now its less than a week to course start. I don't feel that I'm fit enough yet, but I guess it'll have to be as it is. I actually felt a bit tired at the gym today, but I guess everyone has up-days and down-days.

My packing is almost done. I keep forgetting to buy wet wipes even though it's been on top of the shopping list for days now.

So I have all my stuff laid out on the living room carpet at the moment.

Clothing regular stuff

Underwear (socks, underpants stuff like that)

T-shirts

Merino layer (t-shirt, long sleeve, pants)

Fleece sweaters

Down jacket

Shell jacket

Hiking pants

Rain pants

Boots
flip flops

Other stuff

Walking staffs

Sun hat

sun glasses grade 4

Gloves,

Buffs

Sleeping bag liner

Swim suit

Head torch

Cup and food container

Spork

Hygiene

Hand sanitizer
Soap/Shampoo

Wet wipes

Earplugs

Toothbrush and paste

Sunscreen

Towel

Hair brush (very important!)

Important stuff

Wallet

Passport

Insurance info

And I'll probably bring some easy eatable stuff too, oat for breakfast porridge, bread. Such things. I haven't found any easy coffee alternatives, those small packages like they have in hotels. Maybe I have to do the desperate thing and bring caffeine tablets.... yup, I have those...
It's not a very long or comprehensive pack list, but pretty much what is needed for now.
Of course I'll bring some more stuff such as my phone, comp (need to work) and paper to write on too, but that's the more dynamic part of the list.

Thursday evening I'll be heading to Copenhagen and from there I'm off to Marrakesh. :-)

Pre-Morocco 2 - Training and injuries

So, its been a week since the last post. Time is running short. I'll be flying to Morocco in 12 days and all my everyday must-do's are filling up my schedule. I haven't even had time to check my pack-list. That will be the goal for this week. Also, there is some pre-course reading to be done, which will have to wait until Thursday evening I think.

Workout is going fine. I'm doing as previously described - a lot of uphill training, mostly indoors though, walking on a treadmill and a stair master. If you walk up stairs for long enough you'll really feel it in the thighs. I find this kind of monotonous training to work surprisingly well, as I have a deadline and a goal, so self-discipline on a high level. yay! An audio book doesn't hurt either. :-)

I'm starting to notice my old knee trouble. There's some irritating cartilage damage in my patella. I suspect that patella has been a bit crappy since I was a kid. I remember falling straight on my knee while ice skating. My knee was blue and swollen long enough that I remember that I didn't walk on the leg for quite some time. And then I've had some knee pains throughout my life, but never really thought about it before last year when I REALLY overexerted myself in the mountains and subsequently had a feeling of gravel in the knee joint. Minor injuries are never a cause for stopping doing fun things though (with moderation...) So, some patience and very careful training and strengthening of the muscles returned full function to the knee, but I need to take care so as not to damage the cartilage too much in my exploits.

I've just spent the weekend at a symposium for sports surgeons and got to try a knee brace (pic) which really surprised me by its efficacy. No pain whatsoever as I wore it. This kneebrace actually gives the patella a slight lift, easing the pressure between the patella and the trochlea (the groove in the femoral bone in which the knee cap slides). So now I have one of those heading towards my post box. Yay! Hiking and mountaineering will be so much fun, especially with some little aid such as that knee brace.

The sense-moral of this post - injuries are not reasons to quit (depending on activity of course, don't be stupid about it ( - said as a medical professional)), they are just pointers to make you modify your activities and think smarter.

Pre Morocco 1 - How to begin

Preparations have begun.
I'm a little bit nervous about the upcoming trip. France was good (pic from there), but we never did get higher than about 2700 m. We had planned on going to Aguille du Midi (3800 m), but right then the cable car was not in use due to some issue with the cable.

The plan is to reach 4167 m in Morocco. I'm actually going there for a wilderness course, but the summit is the highlight of the whole trip.
A few years back I was in Chamonix and I remember getting out of breath at 2 km altitude and got reeeally heavy in my head at 3800. This year I didn't really notice any difference above or below that 2km line, but I still don't know how well I can handle close to 4 km.
Well, nothing to do but keep on working on my fitness.

For those of you who think that all these activities require marathons and such - I'm nothing of the like. I am a chubby, heavy person. Not at all as light as a climber should be ;)

Well. Training consists of a lot of cardio. Due to a knee injury no running, though. So a lot of walking uphill on a treadmill, walking up stairs and just doing half long hikes in my boots. Also focused muscle strengthening around the knees, ankles and other general stuff.
Even if I end up not reaching the summit I'll be in a hell of a shape :D

Aside from the training I'm working on my pack list. Write about that next...