Berber Family Lodge
Atlas Mountains of Morocco
Imlil, Morocco · 2022
In 2022, I spent a few days in Imlil, a small Berber village tucked into the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. We stayed at Berber Family Lodge, hosted by Mohammed and his family.
Imlil sits about an hour and a half from Marrakech, but it feels much further than that. The road climbs and by the time you reach the village the pace of everything has slowed down with it. We stayed at Berber Family Lodge, run by Mohammed and his family. Mohammed welcomed us with an open door and a family used to sharing their home with strangers who leave a few days later feeling like something other than strangers.
The village of Imlil
‘‘During a hike deep in the Atlas Mountains, we met Ibrahim, a shepherd with the kindest soul. Though he carried only a small bag high up in the mountains, he insisted on making tea for us. From that modest bag, a teapot appeared. He gathered wood and stones, built a fire, and just like that, we found ourselves sharing a beautiful, spontaneous moment together.’’
We hiked with Hassan, a local guide who knew the trails around Imlil the way you know the streets of your own neighbourhood. Every so often we'd pass a mule train carrying supplies up to a village higher on the mountain, the only real traffic on these paths.
Along the way we also met two herders, Omar and Ibrahim, both out with their goats on slopes that looked almost too steep to stand on. Ibrahim is the one I still think about. He had almost nothing with him, just a small bag, and yet he wasn't going to let us pass without making tea.
He gathered stones to build a small fireplace, found dry wood scattered around the slope, and somewhere from that same small bag produced a teapot and glasses. We sat with him for maybe half an hour. Nobody was in a hurry. The tea was strong and sweet, poured from high above the glass the way it's done everywhere in Morocco.
Into the Atlas Mountains
