Word: berbers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Before you settle on your next trekking destination, consider this: How many mountain refuges in the Alps offer rose water to sprinkle on your hands and face after a hard day's hike? (None that I've ever encountered.) If that and other traditional Berber touches - along with some first-rate walking - sounds tempting, then look no further. Morocco's High Atlas range is a stunning destination, and easier to reach than you'd think. From Marrakech, it's a mere 90-minute drive up a winding valley road to the Toubkal National Park. Before you know...
...want to deal with logistics, Original Travel's excellent "big short break" arranges transfers and accommodation, www.originaltravel.co.uk. Our trailhead started at tiny Imlil (1,800 m), where the biggest municipal parking lot seemed to be the one reserved for mules. Fortunately, some of the "Berber four-wheel drives," as they're known locally, arrived to ferry up our bags - but we hoofed it to the impressively perched Kasbah du Toubkal...
...once at war with the leaders of the French far right like Jean-Marie Le Pen who deny his Frenchness; with Algerians who question his Algerianness, and perhaps also with partisans of a view of Arab-Islamic identity to whom the fact that he is both a Berber (Algeria's non-Arab minority) and a self-proclaimed "non-practicing Muslim" may be anathema...
...something else I learnt in the place where I grew up. And, for me, the most important thing is that I still know who I am. Every day I think about where I come from and I am still proud to be who I am: first, a Kabyle [a Berber region of Algeria] from La Castellane, then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman...
...Less than 200 m from the walled medieval city center's entrance we found the Riad Fes Baraka, an oasis of tranquillity. Each of the five individually designed rooms?with carved oak furniture, velvet curtains, patterned silk bedspreads and Berber carpets?manages to be grand and yet surprisingly cozy. Our bathroom in the Arabesque suite featured a cool concrete tub and locally produced natural soaps and moisturizers. A splendidly fresh breakfast of crusty bread, Moroccan bread or Moroccan crepes with jam is included. With its sumptuous comfort and kaleidoscopic flair, the Riad Fes Baraka captures all the intense and colorful...