Adventures in Morocco: Heyyyy Afrika-Sahara Edition

This is one of the things I was most looking forward to on this Morocco trip--a camel trek through the Saharan Desert dunes.  And what a great experience it was--an adventure with much more than we bargained for!

We had booked a private tour ahead of time, which took away a lot of the stress.  Someone picked us up at our riad early the first morning where we then met our driver, Mohamed, of our private car for the journey. As we started our drive through the Atlas mountain, and it also became immediately clear that Mohamed did not speak as much English as we were led to believe by the description of "English speaking driver."

Nonetheless, Mohamed provided some pretty great entertainment for us on this trip.  When we realized he spoke even less French than us (pretty sure he's the only person we met in Morocco that didn't speak good French and passable English) we knew we were in for some comical hours in the car!

Obviously, we were having fun right from the get-go

We stopped for a few pictures in the beautiful Atlas Mountains, and did some GMAT studying.  And by GMAT studying, I mean Michelle studied for the GMAT while Skee and Nick geeked out on math problems, and Amy tried to stay awake and sang children's math songs: "Across the sky and down from heaven, that's the way to make a 7."

 Around lunch time, after a little off-roading (probably the coolest thing Mohammed did all trip), we arrived at the UNESCO site of Ait Benhaddou, an old village where movies like Gladiator Indiana Jones and TV shows like Game of Thrones (WHAT?!) were filmed.  We had a lovely guided tour (for a grand total of 4 euros for 4 people!) before enjoying lunch nearby.

Paintings done with pigments and heat, so cool!

Back on the road again, we drove through Ouarzazate, the "film capital" according to Mohammed.  Although, when asked, what the capital of Morocco was, he told us "film".  Even after simplifying our question in English and French, we got the same response, so we resorted to reading wikipedia history in the car and using the over-excited response of "oooooooh, I understand" a lot, when really we didn't understand at all.

Even sleeping in the car can be fun!

Several hours later (yes, this trip involved a lot of driving...good thing we had each other to keep company), we got closer and closer to our destination for the night--Dades Gorges.  Mohammed pointed out many exciting things along the way: "tree-almond. tree-olive. stork. nest-stork." The best was when we tried asking what type of flowers we were seeing (that looked like poppies) and he told us roses.  Then, when we got to "rose valley", he pulled over so we could take a picture, and all there was to see was a tree! haha!

But alas, we arrived in Dades Gorge, and it was some beautiful landscape.  After acquiring some fresh squeezed orange juice, we made some cocktails to enjoy the scenery!

 

Early the next morning, we hit the road again and arrived at Todra Gorge, where we took in the scenery and got to see the locals herding goats downstream.

And finally, late afternoon, we arrived in Merzouga, where the start of our camel trek was.  Sadly, it was difficult to even see the Erg Chebbi dunes because a sandstorm was brewing in the 98 degree heat.  We're pretty sure if it had been any worse, they wouldn't have taken us out for the night, but after getting our head gear on, we were ready for the trek.

The camel ride was awesome for about the first 30 minutes...then my legs started hurting and then wind picked up, pelting us with sand!  A true Saharan experience, I guess!  And we got some great pictures!

You can hear the wind really starting to pick up in this one!

Finally we arrived at our camp in the dunes for the night, and attempting to explore and take some photos for a bit before the wind overwhelmed us.

We were treated to a Berber (local people) made tagine in our tent, followed by some drums and singing.  Again, without the wind, probably more enjoyable, but a great experience nonetheless.

Our attempts at sleep were wrought with worries of dung beetles crawling on us (at least for the girls) and the tent collapsing from the gale force winds.  Thankfully neither happened and we were woken at 6am for sunrise.  The wind had died down, so we were able to enjoy a beautiful Easter morning sunrise before getting back on our camels for a 2 hour trek back to Merzouga.  While it was a little strange to not be in church on Easter morning, what better way to enjoy God's beautiful creation and reflect on the special day!

After a quick shower, we reunited with Mohamed for our 10 hour trek back to Marrakech.  With only a stop for lunch, it was a long drive, but we were just eager to get back.  Apparently, we had 2 near death experiences that only Nick witnessed and didn't share until after we arrived back in Marrakech, which left us in tears. (Although we're sure not sure we entirely believe these stories!)

1. Baby camel picture.  Nick asked Mohammed to stop so he could take a picture of the baby camels we saw along the road.  In doing so, he apparently irked one of the Berber owners who chased him back to the car, and Nick had to hold the door shut while Mohammed drove off.  Apparently, we were all so intent on watching the baby camels, that none of the rest of us realized it!  Well, except Mohammed, who Nick said, had a little smirk on his face.

2.  Mohammed was a super safe and excellent driver, but when 3 out of the 4 of us fell asleep, he must have decided it was time for some risks.  Again, Nick relays that he pulled out to pass a car behind 2 other cars and when the 2 cars cut back in front to the correct lane, our car was caught starting directly at an oncoming car.  Honking and swerving later, we made it just in time back to our lane, although none of us woke up!

So all in all a pretty great experience (more pictures here)...I'm really thankful we had Skee and Michelle along, or it probably would have been more difficult to keep ourselves entertained with a guide who didn't speak either of our languages.  If I was going to do it again, I would probably give myself more time in the country so that I could drive myself and take my time.  But, for a 3 day excursion, this is the way to go.  And while, yes, it would have been great if Mohammed has spoken more English, we paid about half of what other people we met in the desert paid for their trips, and their drivers took longer to get back to Marrakech.  So, in the end, I'm happy with our decision and it's definitely something I can cross of my bucket list now (broken point and shoot camera, and all)!

A great way to experience local Morocco!