Morocco

File: SAM_3055.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

The mountains are pretty densely populated but that's a good thing imo because you don't have to carry much food and can sleep on anyone's floor.

You know OP, I knew a guy from Morocco in Boston (shopkeeper where I would frequent) and he told me all about it one day because he was visiting for the first time in years. He piqued my interest enough to look into it out of curiosity and I was pretty impressed. Place is really noice, and the culture has proper Berber/Carthaginian roots without too much Roman/Moor/etc pollution. Fucking great food too.

Anyway, for like 10 years I've wanted to visit Morocco.

File: SAM_3089.jpg (2MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 4000x3000px

>>759982
Yeah, the more morocco tries to cosy up to the pan-Arabic world, the more shitty things get. The berbers are at the heart of the moroccan self-assertion movement, because Arabisation will also mean the death of their language and culture. Right now the language is not considered endangered, but that's probably what they said about Gaelic 100 years ago.

File: SAM_3138.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

massive diversity in terrain.

File: SAM_3087.jpg (2MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 4000x3000px

This dude walked two hours to show me the donkey path to the next village, and refused payment.

I'll start polite-saging.

Might visit next spring. Are mountains typically still snow capped in April?

File: SAM_2744.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

The Anti-Atlas kind of remind me of Zion NP

File: SAM_3095.jpg (2MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 4000x3000px

>>759989
You won't find much snow below 10,000 feet in April, but the water table is still high. If you want to do Toubkal or m'goun you might run into deep snow.
Where you gonna go?

File: CentralPangean.jpg (196KB, 1200x607px) Image search: [Google]

196KB, 1200x607px

>>759990
You know, not to be a complete geology geek but the White Mountains in New Hampshire are the same mountain range as the Atlas mountains. Some 500 million years ago they were the same piece of land in Pangea and then rifted apart to opposite sides of the planet by present day. Scotland is the same thing, was right in the middle. Whenever I got to the Whites with friends I always mention it because I think it's cool

File: SAM_3063.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

This was such a nice day I left my pack at a village, ascended 2,500 feet in nothing but a T-shirt, and took a nap where this photo was taken.

File: SAM_3155.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

>>759994
I did know this; most of these photos are from when I tried to hike the full length of the Atlas so I could claim to have done the "other half" of the Appalachian Trail.
I'm not really clear on exactly which mountains in America correspond to the Atlas. I think the Anti-Atlas were formed in the same tectonic movement as much of Appalachia; the High Atlas are newer and unrelated.
Around the southern city of Tafraoute you find the same kind of pink granite as around my home in Maine.

File: SAM_2837.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

I'll post a few culture-related photos because the people are really what keep me coming back.

File: 1429718355552.gif (2MB, 280x287px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 280x287px

>>759980
>muslims
>nicest people on earth

File: SAM_3149.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

>>760002
Kids can be real jerks to visitors, but you'll usually get an apologetic cup of tea from their parents.

>>760006
whelp bout 35mins till first shitpost. not a bad record round these parts.

File: SAM_2748.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

>>760006
Please don't ruin my thread. I'm not trying to convince you of anything.

I stayed with this guy for two days. He spoke really good French. The climate is mild in the Anti-Atlas and the water table seems to defy gravity so you find villages right on top of mountains.

>>760011
how did you plan this? do you just talk to locals and ask to stay with them, or does he normally board travelers like a little bed & breakfast deal?

File: SAM_3086.jpg (2MB, 3000x4000px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3000x4000px

This guy invited me to crash for the night during a rainstorm. He had the cutest, friendliest kids I've ever met. We sat around all evening while they tried to teach me their dialect of Berber. I'm shit with languages, unfortunately.

File: SAM_2738.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

>>760013
If you know enough French to converse with locals, about once every two days you'll be invited to spend the night. I usually refuse because their rules of hospitality outweigh what they can actually afford to feed you. I had one family slaughter a precious egg-laying chicken just to impress me with a good dinner (this isn't presumption; a kid who spoke English told me this the next day).
I try to find sneaky ways to give people money since they usually refuse if you straight-up offer it to them. In the morning I'll say "thanks for the hospitality; can I buy some bread or eggs from you?
Only in areas frequented by tourists, such as Toubkal National Park, will people ask for payment if you sleep at their house. 5-10 euro should do.

File: SAM_3169.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

Here's a buddy of mine stoking a fire after we were forced to camp above the snowline. We'd had to ford some rivers and in the morning my boots were frozen solid so I couldn't put my feet in until they thawed. That's the coldest I've ever been.

>>760006

Yes, regular muslims are the nicest people on earth. Their hospitality is unmatched. It's the extreme ones who are bad.

File: SAM_3166.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

Here's the M'goun plateau. After a 6-hour ascent it took us exactly 30 seconds of postholing to see that we weren't going to make it and had to turn back. both suffering from altitude sickness at this point.

File: SAM_3160.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

Going to bed now. If /int/ hasn't reduced this thread to ruins I'll answer more questions tomorrow.

>>760047
awesome thread OP! when you get back be sure to bump it again innamorning I'm sure there'll be more interest

>>760044
Regular Muslims in Muslim countries*
Morrocan are totally bro-tier but when raised in the West extreme or not they're regular people, same for the other North-Africans
But whatever there are other boards for this, thanks for the pics OP

I spent 3 months in Morocco during a recent period of travel, worked with a bunch of local Berbers doing earthen building and living with a family in the village. My only regret is not getting /out/ more while I was there, hiking the atlas would have been awesome. It really is a beautiful country. The only thing I feel I need to say (and it may be a little redundant on this board), is to get off the tourist track as soon as possible. The vast majority of the population are indeed some of the most welcoming people I've ever met, don't let the touts that congregate around tourist towns misrepresent the country. It's a great place to go, especially if you're unfamiliar with Islamic culture.

>>760039
>Fixing camp and making a fire on a river bed while there's snow less than a km away up and you are being a hipster
Kids do not do this at home. It screams death by mudslide.

File: 1462759361656.jpg (27KB, 320x240px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 320x240px

>>760039
ooo looks like an egg :3

File: IMG_1409.png (509KB, 545x383px) Image search: [Google]

509KB, 545x383px

>>759985
as a berber i can tell you the language is indeed endangered. the arabs forbid us from speaking it all in school and no government officials use it in business, except cops when you bribe them lmao

>>760189
>the arabs forbid us from speaking it all in school

Sounds like when France used to punish people for speaking Occitan

>>760194
it's the same sort of principle, if there was actually some form of democracy there'd be hope for the culture

>>759980
I visited Morocco in the early '90s... got a cool rug and an itch on my genitals *shrugs*

File: IMG_0941.jpg (3MB, 3264x2448px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 3264x2448px

>>760201
Yeah, I got ringworm and jock itch last time I went there. Such are the joys of rough travel.

This is in the Moyen Atlas in December.

File: SAM_3477.jpg (3MB, 4000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4000x3000px

>>760196
What stands in the way of democracy in Morocco? The monarchy? Islamists?
I thought Berber was taught in your schools.

>>760136
That's so cool. Did you learn much of the language? I'm trying to learn Tashlheet using old Peace Corps manuals.

>>760145
There's actually a funny story behind that egg.

>>760136
did you organise the earth building yourself or was it through an organisation
i looked into travelling and learning building in foreign countries but didn't find anything 3 months long

>>761762
What's the funny story? Post moar photos.

>>760044
This. The nicest people I've ever met throughout Europe were a family of turks. Not germans, not slavs, not sweeds, not englados. No.
A fucking family of hardcore muslim turks.