IMLIL AND AROUMD, MOROCCO: VIEWS OF JEBEL TOUBKAL

We left the wild craziness of the Berber Market and drove the last few miles to Imlil.

On the way, I spotted this delivery truck on the road and wondered how many mothers in this area have the luxury of disposable diapers, and how the trash collection system works in the many small villages we passed.

There are some things you just don't learn when you are a tourist. 

The spectacular Atlas Mountains stretch more than 1500 miles across the north end of Africa. We had already spent some significant time driving through other sections of the Atlas (see here and here), but we were really looking forward to seeing Jebel [Mount] Toubkal, the tallest mountain in Northern Africa at 13,665 feet.

Aziz took us to the upper edge of Imlil, which serves as the starting point for those who want to make the trek to Jebel Toubkal's summit. Most people take a day to hike 5-7 hours to the base camp, spend the night there, and then rise early for the final ascent, which takes 2.5 to 4.5 hours, depending on the route. (For a complete description, see this site.)

At first we thought this majestic specimen was The Great Mountain:

However, later we got a better view of the real Jebel Toubkal, located to the left of and behind the mountain in the above photo:

Here it is, just over Bob's head:

MOROCCO: IMLIL BERBER MARKET IN ATLAS MOUNTAINS

We used Marrakech as a starting point for a trip to Imlil, a small village of about 5,000 people high in the Atlas Mountains. It was the closest we could get to 13,671-foot-tall Jebel Toubkal, the tallest mountain not just in Morocco, but in all of North Africa. Bob has a thing about high points.

We were back with our driver Aziz, who had driven us from Fes to the Sahara, and from the Sahara to Marrakech. 

We stopped several times for photos. It doesn't look very mountainous, does it?

The area around Marrakech is similar to the high desert of Southern California: