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.

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.