A SCOTTISH adventurer has become the first European to walk from North Africa's highest point to the sea through the Atlas mountains.
Alice Morrison and her guide Rachid Ait Elmahjoub completed the gruelling 186-mile hike in 12 days, walking for up to 18 hours a day.
The pair crossed snow-streaked mountain slopes well away from the tourist trail before descending down to the desert plains and the Atlantic coast.
It is believed that the trek is the first time a route has been found through the mountains, with the walk stretching from the 13,000 ft Mount Toubkal to Agadir on the Atlantic ocean .
Ms Morrison said: “Physically, it was an enormously tough challenge. We went from the snow to burning sun, and were always looking for places to replenish our water.
"The ascents were lung-bursting but it was the descents over the rocks and ravines that really ravaged our legs and feet.
"After the second day we left “tourist” Morocco behind and in many places, I was the first Western person to have passed through. I have never made so many babies cry in my life.”
The 52-year-old, who is from Edinburgh but is now based in Marrakesh, has previously completed the longest bike race in the world, The Tour D’Afrique, and the Marathon Des Sables through the Sahara, the toughest footrace on earth.
Ait Elmahjoub added: “The other mountain guides said they did not think we could do it. But we kept going and then finally we reached the sea. Everywhere we went, people shared their food and water and hospitality with us. This is how life works in the Atlas mountains.”
The trip was organised and sponsored by adventure travel company Epic Morocco, which runs tailor-made tours and trips throughout the country and also major corporate events.
The company's CEO said: “We wanted to open up a potential new route in Morocco. This is one of the most beautiful areas in Africa but no-one has attempted the full crossing before. It is brilliant to get a British-Berber first.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article