Eager to leave the city behind us, we departed for the Atlas mountains, stopping in a small village Imill. We meet our guide Muhammad and enjoyed omelettes and mint tea. To our delight there was a mule waiting for us to carry our pack to base camp. We set off on our trek through small mountain berber villages, we first passed the village of Aremd and then onto the shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. We then continued by crossing the flood plains then straight up into the high rocky cliffs above the valley. Crossing the river we came to the pastoral shrine of Sidi Chamarouch, which attracts tourists and pilgrims and stopped for a huge delicious lunch. From there the trail continued to climb steadily, snaking and zigzagging its way up to the snowline and the Toukbal Refuge (3206m), our stop for the night.