4th of October - Morocco - back to sea level

The evening after our hike I had a quite serious headache. Not so that I thought AMS, even though some of the others had been affected to a degree that at least one had to take Diamox (check out the article on Acute mountain sickness to the right). I had just really not been hydrating enough and eating had not been very efficient either due to my allergies. Nothing new though, I always eat a bit differently when not at home, the new factor was the level of activity though.  I went to bed with a pounding headache and woke up at 2 AM with just as much pain. I hit the water bottle with a vengeance and fell asleep again. Luckily the headache had let up by the time my alarm clock sounded in the morning.

Breakfast was a couple of slices of bread and some porridge and a more or less fantastic cup of Peter Larsen coffee. I think I will buy these for every single trip from now on. Sooo nice and so simple !!

We soon gathered the troops again and head off back toward the kasbah in Imlil. We kept a very good pace and people were chatting in small groups all along the way.
The weather was fantastic, just as all our days have been after the first chilly, rainy one. Already after 15 minutes we had to stop and pack jackets and sweaters away. The member of the group that had been the slowest the day before in the snowy terrain headed down in a faster pace than many of us could manage to keep up with. Haha, who would've known.

I spent the first part of our hike in silence, just thinking, relaxing my mind and occasionally listening to what people said with half an ear. I just felt generally good, although I once again considered changing my career completely and becoming a full time traveler ;)

Later I had a long conversation with Peichii (whom we all have been calling Peachy). We talked about traveling and she really has some good travel stories. She told me about being in Japan among other places. Very interesting. I would love to go. We discussed religion and basic common sense and how the two are interrelated. I bet we could've kept this discussion up for hours. It is always interesting to speak to someone who is not agreeing with you. ;)
I talked a bit about Mexico, my favourite travel destination so far.

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When we reached Sidi we stopped for a cup of coffee, juice and tea before continuing. We had some almonds and figs left from our lunch packs and gave them to the owner of the café as we left.
When crossing the last river bed some of us picked a few rocks to bring with us home. There were so many different colours. Green, red, spotted, striped, just beautiful rocks. (Yes, brother, I can hear you sighing as you read this, I did pick a few...)
On arriving at the kasbah we just had time for a quick freshening up before getting all our backpacks and heading down to Imlil. The WMT team had ordered lunch at a roof terrace in the village, salad, chicken and french fries. Now I finally had the chance to talk a bit with Barry. I'm generally, seriously impressed by all these WMT people.

As I've said before, I've met Barry during a previous course. His accident has really made an impression on me and the others. It is very inspiring to meet someone who is a bit passed the worst part of such injuries. I usually only meet people when they are in the middle of it, bloodied, afraid and terrified of the implications of what has happened, thinking that everything is over, but it's not, right. There is a life after an accident too. Just like with so many other things, you have the possibility to affect your future, even if you won't be the exact same person again. but then again, we change continuously whether such incidents happen or not, we get older, slower, learn other ways of doing things. The difference is that an accident will have it all happen at once. The breaks are pushed suddenly and that's what shocks you. I'm very happy to have heard the story of someone who is over the first part of recovery and has the strength to find his way back to what is important to him, as well as to share his experiences and to keep on organizing such huge events as our expedition.

Thinking of Barry's incident, I remember a specific person running after me in the corridor at work one day some time ago. I had treated a close person to them. I received a hug and they told me how important it had been that we had had a clear and calm talk about the implications of the other persons injuries and a timeline of recovery and most importantly hope for the future. Together we had laid a foundation that they could start working from.Making sure that they knew things would get better even though it would be slow going had been important.

Even though I seldom get the chance to talk more with the people I see, there sometimes is a chance to talk to their loved ones and underline the importance of emotional support and lending of strength, even on the days when the person wants to give up.

Anyhow, after the lunch we packed our bags in buses and headed back toward Marrakesh.

 I sat next to Chris, who told me about his plans for the next few days together with his sister. They are heading back toward the Atlas mountains and the south side of the mountain range. Apparently there's a stretch called the road of a thousand kasbahs (I have really not prepared for this trip at all. I know nothing of this country! It's embarrassing...) that they will travel and maybe stay in the desert and trek too. Sounds like super much fun. I got such a craving for more traveling! He suggested I tag along and my mind right away started working on how to make it happen. Would've been super nice to travel a bit more with someone as friendly as this guy, but crashing a sibling party and being all nordic and weird didn't really feel right. (Although in retrospect, I'd have no qualms about inviting ppl with me on my sibling travels...)
I can't let go of the idea of doing more in Morocco, though.

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We got to our hotel in Marrakesh, close to the main souk (market). I shared a room with Martina from Malta (I think) and Marzanne from South Africa. I spoke mostly with Marzanne and ended up inviting her to Denmark and Sweden. Would be great to meet these people again. Oh and family and friends, if you are reading this, I have promised your couches to these upcoming guests. Now you've been warned... Before the evening meal we had time for a quick look at the market.

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The evening was spent on the terrace writing course evaluations, mingling and having dinner. I sat next to Jim, Mike and PeiChii and we ended up having a discussion on Brexit and IVF. I don't know how we ended up there, but it is interesting to hear how the NHS works. I can't really repeat the information here though, I don't remember the details. We also talked a bit about real British food (real British food and not the immigrant cuisine) and weather or not the Britts learned anything from the time they more or less were the Empire of the World. I think the conclusion was "nah, not really". Funny stuff.
Later we went for drinks at a nearby bar. People were being generally really fun. I learned what floss and dab means - Hilarious!!! Jim demonstrated the moves. Too bad I don't have a picture. We're talking stroke level funny.

I talked a bit more with Nigel, our group guide. He is such an impressive and knowledgeable person, climber, hiker, former army dude and just generally a warm person.
Some of the others got a water pipe and sat in a ring enjoying that. I don't do any kind of smoke (especially since my first delivery of "the bad news" to one of my sweetest patients ever. Can't remember their name, but the eyes....)
Aside from that, just a lovely evening that ended with a stroll through the plaza in front of the large market place. It was super lively, filled with people, musicians, snake charmers, street vendors among other things.








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We fell asleep quite heavily in our room where the AC was broken. We are talking heat stroke sleep...

1st of October - Morocco - Acclimatization trip around Imlil

Our day started a tad earlier today than yesterday. The plan was to be finished with breakfast and have our day-packs packed at 0830, in order to be on our way early for a short acclimatization trek. So, prepared for anything after yesterday's rain and cold, we packed for a strenuous day in the mountains. I was wearing a t-shirt, merino wool sweater and had a fleece sweater, gloves and several buffs in my backpack. Oh, and the rain set of course. The Kasbah made lunch packs for us containing fruit, a boiled egg, a can of tuna and a piece of bread. I brought my own bread of course. Aside from that I grabbed some dried fruit with me from the breakfast buffet.

It was quite chilly in the shade, but as soon as we entered sunlight the cold dissipated. The sun was quite sharp and burning. Actually I found my grade 4 sun glasses quite comfortable in that bright sunlight. Usually I find them to be way too dark.

We walked in the two groups into which we had been divided earlier and practiced navigating with a map and reading the landscape around us - orienteering. We walked along mule paths and talked about navigation, flexible solutions in case of accidents and injuries, how to transport an injured person in the simplest way possible using trekking poles or backpacks and how to create simple slings and bandages for broken limbs.
I totally love this kind of simple pre-hospital way of thinking, and some day I wish to be the teacher, strolling along a path in a forest or on a mountain, giving others tips and tricks for easy fixes.

We had our lunch packs sitting on a slope of scree, in between fields of thistle and low, gnarly, very green conifers.

We were out for about 4-5 hours this day and our walk circled around the side of the north facing mountain, heading west, crossing a few rivulets and then crossing over to the south facing mountain side back down in the village of Imlil.

Imlil is by the way a little town at 1800 m altitude. It has more or less been created by the increasing mountain tourism. The area has several old communities, though that still exist. The area used to be known for its walnuts, apples and cherries, but now the tourism is a leading source of income.

On arrival in Imlil we were divided into three groups, each receiving 300 Dirhams, just about 30 EUR. The plan was to buy lunch for 2 days for each of us and our group leader, Nigel. This is part of the expedition thinking, how to get food that works with everyone with a limited budget.

The groups hit the streets of the village and we started bargaining for good prices. We ended up buying local bread for 2 days (I have my own of course), cheese and 800 grams of almonds, 11 eggs, 3 turkey sausages to share, two bags of apples, a whole lot of bananas, dried figs and a few cookies. So more than enough for a couple of lunches for our group. A bit too much actually.
So, first test passed with flying colours, everybody got more or less what they wanted.

The day carried on with some lessons. Barry started with an introduction to the use of a GPS. I don't use GPS a lot, not even on my smartphone, but it is quite handy. You just need to remember to get to an open space, preferably high up, so as to have as many satellites as possible in range of the GPS.
We had another lesson on simple temporary orthopaedic fixes, such as femur fractures, ankle sprains and fractures, wrist and forearm fractures.

We had a quite intensive session on frost injuries, hypothermia and heat related injuries with Duncan. After that we finally got something to eat. The main course this evening was lamb tajine. Really nicely prepared with prunes and almonds. The dessert was fresh fruit served at our evening session which started with Charlotte sharing her experiences on how she became an expedition medic through just showing interest and having some free time from her education in order to go on trips and expeditions.

Last of all Barry chose to share his experiences and activities throughout the years with us. He told us the story of climbing mount Everest in 2004. After that he shared what had happened to him last year while paragliding. I have met him before, in 2015 in Chamonix and I thought he was a bit different since last time. A bit thinner, with some scares and uneven areas in his face. It turns out he crashed last fall while paragliding at 4 km altitude. The fall was about 50 meters as he was crossing the crest. He smashed his face, chest and hurt his knees. Somehow he managed to activate his emergency GPS and the first person to find him stayed with him until the helicopter could come the next day as it had gotten too dark for a rescue. They slept under a bush until evacuation.

It's fantastic to meet someone who has come so far after such a serious incident and to see the will to continue.
After his talk it became very still and I think all of us had some reflecting to do. I would've asked him some questions as I feel his experience has so much to teach, especially as I sometimes meet people who are very hurt... Didn't feel like the right moment though.
Anyhow, we went to bed after this and I think my reflections kept going on all night... I can't remember what I dreamed of, just that my mind was mulling things over.

30th of September - Morocco - Polar, altitude and a walk

This day had an interesting beginning. After a nice breakfast with loads of coffee, fresh orange juice and some yogurt we finally got on to some WMT stuff. The main organizer, Barry, held an introduction and started with just getting some of the admin out of the way.

The first talk of the day was actually done by the British ambassador in Morocco, Thomas Reilly. Turns out he's wife has been on the course some time back just previous to their moving to Morocco. He gave us some background information to why Morocco is so much more successful than the neighboring north African countries. When many of the others had revolutions happening that overthrew the governments, Morocco had demonstrations as well. More than 4 million people were out calling for change. The leader of the country, the king, recognized that he would be losing he's position unless he changed something, so he did. He moved some of he's power to a counsel and gave the people what they wanted, more influence. The result - he is still in power, although not absolute. The counsel has some power and works with a sort of democracy. People are content. Morocco more or less thrives.

I must admit, my Africa knowledge has huuuuge gaps.

Next we heard about some arctic expeditions with teenagers, mostly to show us what these experiences can be used for. How to plan, what can go wrong, what to pack, how to screen and when to deny attendance. One example would be someone who will not eat the food that is available when in remote places. What is brought with is what you have. If you don't eat you will slow the whole group down, potentially creating dangerous situations.

The more interesting lecture was about altitude sickness. I find this to be very intriguing. It can hit anyone at around 2 km altitude. You don't know who might get affected before it hits. It's something about the body's response to hypoxia. Some people don't respond strongly enough - don't start hyperventilating enough, or something of the like. The percentage of affected people increases with altitude and speed of ascent. An ascent up Kilimanjaro (about 5,5 km) will cause altitude illness in 70% of people if the speed of ascent is 4 days, but 10-15% if its done in 8 days. Acclimatization is key. If someone gets affected they need to stop and do a rest day until symptoms dissipate alternatively descend if it gets serious.



We had lunch on the roof terrace of the Kasbah. Lunch was couscous, but I asked and they made a special for me. Totally unexpected. I thought they'd just pick some chicken off the couscous and offer me that.
Very kind of them to prepare something for me.

After lunch we had a walk with daypacks and a bit of training outside. We got a little lesson on navigation and map reading, basic trauma assessment and the simplest sort of belaying with a rope, carabiner and sling with only two knots, a regular and an Italian hitch. I enjoyed this part most of all. Rope and knots are fun.

It got a bit chilly and rainy while we were out. We actually had to change the planned hiking route due to lightning (not wise to be the highest point on a bare mountain). I ended up wearing all my layers - t-shirt, merino wool sweater, fleece sweater, shell jacket, two buffs and gloves. Luckily the rain didn't get very bad so there was no need to start pulling on my rain pants.

The weather in the mountains is quite shifty and by the time we were heading back the sun was shining and it was getting quite warm. So layers off again and we enjoyed ourselves. I had a nice chat with two of the girls, Elinor and Naomi. I realized that my mind is not quick enough for the fast English they kept sprouting. Wow! Having English as my third language really doesn't help, hahaha! I had to ask them to repeat several times, because I simply couldn't catch what they were saying ;)

The last session of the day was quite fascinating. It was one of the leaders telling us of all kinds of expeditions and experiences he has had during he's career. Himalayas, Kilimanjaro, Arctic, Antarctic, Australia, Alaska, Iraq war and so on and so on.
So exciting to listen to, but oh my, so much activity. It felt quite distant from what any of us would be able to achieve in our lifetimes.

Dinner was three courses again and by that time we were all exhausted.

Tomorrow our day will start with a long hike. Our day-packs are already packed. Time to hit the sack.

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 :-)