Today is Sahara day! Everyone was up and to breakfast around 8am. Breakfast was around the pool this morning – really nice. The goal was to be out by 8:40am, but by the time we packed out it was 9am.

When Kahlid joined us he was in full Sahara attire and looked excellent! We headed into Zouara to the Souk to pick up several liters of water, fruit for tomorrows breakfast, snacks for the long drive and last minute shopping.
Seeing Kahlid decked out inspired a few of us to cross over to full garb and head dress for the Sahara tour.

This souk was in a large enclosed space with a small sampling of everything. More a functional souk than a tourist souk.

We met back up and returned to the hotel (which is on the way out of town) for the last “real bathrooms for a couple of days”.
I took the chance to dunk my new garb into the pool to loosen it up and get rid of the packing lines.
It worked, but the colors are already starting to run.
That’s what you get for 100dh ($10).

We loaded up and were off by 10am.

Not sure what it is called in Morocco, but a few people have been hit (silently) by Montezuma’s revenge.
I am not an exception here. I assume it’s because I brushed my teeth yesterday with tap water.
As soon as I did this I knew it was not the best idea. I could taste the saltiness and it is obviously not treated. As previously mentioned the water here comes from the Atlas mountains and works it’s way through this valley and disappears in the Sahara. Evaporating along the way.
Add to that large salt deposits in the mountains and you end up with a water ripe for the kind of life you don’t want in your mouth.
Even though I recognized the error of my ways immediately, finished with bottled water, and was careful not to swallow… it was enough it seems.
Hit last night, I knew what was up so drank a bunch of water and powered through.
A few rumblings this morning and I expect some more unpleasantness later, but hopefully it doesn’t become debilitating.

At about 11am we stopped at a library which was also a tour of the local casbah and the family business of clay working and firing.

The library was really cool to see. You can tell it is a source of great pride for the town. There was an old gentleman in a wheel chair being pushed by a kid. He told us about the various books which included everything from the Koran and Poems to scientific books on Boteny and Math.
Everything well over 1000 years old and all hand written.
Forgotten by time, or simply overlooked.
Seemed like a scholars dream land.

Then we walked into the Casbah.
The heat outside was intense, but reduced an amazing amount when walking the halls of the casbah which were narrow and dark. Probably close to a 30 degree Fahrenheit difference.

The local guide told us how some of the rooms recently have running water, but everything else is still the old way without electricity. Lighting is done by oil lamp.

In other places we have visited locals would come out to see us (as the spectacle, or a potential revenue stream) here I noticed some women pulling the kids inside and clearing the path for us.
Of course, not all of them cleared away and there was some casual begging of the kids, but they were pretty chill. Everyone was SUPER nice, respectful and accommodating, but this was one place I felt a bit like we were invading their space.

We then went to the clay products creation area.
Mimi, Coco and Mike each tried their hand at making a small clay bowl with a manual clay working wheel. They had varying degrees of success with equal degrees of mess (and laughter).

We then got a step by step tour of the process from making the clay to firing.
At the firing area we learned what ingredients make the various colors:
Magnesium – Green
Indigo – Blue (different than Marrakech Cobalt)
Brown – Henna

By far this location has shown the absolute different living conditions of the people out here.
Creature comforts are gone and the essentials for life are in full affect. Seeing this place as a tourist destination is at once enlightening, humbling, and somehow inappropriate.
But the family in the Casbah clearly count on this traffic for selling pottery.

At the end of the tour we needed to —> exit through the casbah giftshop.

Basically a series of rooms with LOTS of Casbah beautifully crafted painted clay products. Our shoppers (Moira, and Coco) were in full effect and when finished buying all the cool clay stuff, we loaded up, hit the numbers and left the town just before noon.

The road is getting less maintained and in some places we are guided off the road altogether onto a packed dirt (but very rolly) surface as they are working on the main road.
We get more looks from people now as our “touristic” van motors on through more and more rural areas.
Where the looks seemed to be “I hope they come here and buy stuff” before it is shifting more to “What they hell are they doing here?”

Then we began the climb over the Bani Range – After this we will be in the Sahara proper. Smaller road, steeper, less trucks, and more switchbacks – but much more tame than the Atlas.
Also more military trucks and barracks as we get closer the Algerian boarder.
These are not the friendliest of neighbors.
The road continues to shrink and we are now on an a single lane road where passing requires both drivers to have a couple of wheels in the dirt which is slowly increasing in sand content.
Then the narrow paved road turned into a wider packed tar road and we entered another range of the Bani.
A few more curves and BAM!

Sand dunes and shrubbery like someone just turned it on.
These trees hold the dunes in place
Tamarix (trees)
Also palm fronds are used to try and stop the sand from moving north.
And we enter another grove of palm trees. Less lush but no less spectacular.

We are definitely getting out here.

We arrived at our destination around 1pm and casually walk over to a Musee for lunch.
The streets are much emptier and quieter in the heat of mid-day. There is no Souk in this town, but the Musee is quite impressive.

Lunch was a shared feast of 3 Lamb Tarjine and one Vegetable Tarjin (which has lamb in it).
Basically the vegetable version of anything out here is NOT vegetarian. It’s just more vegetables then the normal version of the dish.
If you are vegetarian, there is not a great deal for you out in the desert. It’s a meat (Lamb, Cow, Goat, Turkey or Chicken) with some Potato, Carrot, Onion and (if lucky) Turnip – LOTS of yummy spice options – but this is about surviving.
There are dates and they find melon and grapes for dessert but this is all there is out here.
If you have strict dietary rules and take this journey – bring your own food.
I don’t have such restrictions (though don’t normally eat like this) and found the food to be consistently great.
Simple – but great.

This time we sat on the floor surrounded by artifacts in an authentic structure.
Feeling more and more legit.
Once we finished eating some of our group when for a swim in a “Pay Extra” pool while others lounged in the Musee.

It was cooler (by MANY degrees with a light breeze) in the Musee just like the casbah earlier in the day.

One thing we have gained out here are flies.
LOTS of flies. They are annoying and know how to come at you at just the right moment for maximum irritation. They liked ears, mouths, noses and eyes. We spent some time trying to whack them away and eventually just swatted at the ones getting too comfortable with us.

At 3:30pm we finished transferring our bags for the overnight and getting ready for the next event of the day.
Camel riding!

From 4pm to 5pm we rode camels through the town and out to desert for our first taste of sandy desert-ness.
I got into my Sahara garb and everyone donned head gear. The headscarf turned out very handy not just for sand and sunblock, but also the flies which no longer had access to our ears, mouth or nose. They’d still go for the eyes though.

We looked official!
Officially like tourists that is and it was fucking great.

I have to admit I was not looking forward to the Camel ride just because it seemed like it would be a silly experience (like riding a horse in a circle at a fair). But camels are a different thing.
When they stand up with you on them you are VERY high in the air, and their pace has much more sway. Once you sit back into the soft saddle and relax it’s quite a calm ride. Until they start going up or down dunes.
Then you have to pay attention because they create some extreme angles (especially downhill).

Teresa and Erica both named their camels (though when the guides were asked what the names actually were we were told they don’t name the camels). Never-the-less, Teresa was riding “Carl the Camel” and Erica rode “Bob”.

One of the major trade routes was from Marrakech to Timbuktu and this area was the route. It is a 52 day ride by camel and caravans of 2000 camels were used to make the journey several times per year.
I do find it fascinating and might do a longer ride in the future to a camp or something, but for now… I was happy it was just a 1 hour ride and a taste of what it would be like an a caravan across the desert.

Once back in town we were in high gear to get into the 4x4s and shoot off to the next destination. Apparently we were a bit behind schedule as our goal was to be at the dune camp site in time to watch the sunset. It is a 2 hour off-road ride, the sun sets at 7:30pm and it was already 5:30pm before we got out.
Loading into the three Toyota 4x4s we split up 4, 4, and 5.
There was a stop in the last little place to pick up some frozen water.
Our driver mis-understood what was going on, and when the other 2 cars stopped for the water, our guy stopped for second and then shot off with us.
We looked at each other confused for a moment thinking “Maybe they are buying everything for us and we will catch up with them”. Eventually David asked in French and our driver was like “Oh, you want water too!?” he turned around and raced back.

We grabbed our water shot off into the desert and spread into three parallel lines. This is to not dust the following cars and also provide better visibility to the drivers. Every once in a while these lines would converge, but then our driver would pick another path just to mix it up. We continued the weaving and bobbing between the cars as the drivers were on a mission to get us to camp before sunset. You could feel the intensity and focus.
Every time the car slid sideways on the sand we bobbled inside the car like dolls and Heather would burst out laughing.
With three wedged into the back seat there was nothing to do but hang on and go with it.
It was fun. 🙂

We stopped halfway there to stretch our legs and switch seats (for those who wanted to) then it was back at it for another hour.

Mostly rocky for the first part slowly dunes started to appear to our left.
Then we arrived at the camp nestled in the dunes.

Oh it felt good to stop and stretch, but no sooner had our feet touched the sand that Kahlid jumped out “OK everyone let’s go for the sunset!” and took off climbing into the dunes at a pretty stiff pace. None of us questioned it and we kicked off our shoes and chased after.

The sand was amazingly soft and though warm, not uncomfortable. We climbed up to the top of a ridge, scrambled across to another and up to a higher ridge. Repeating this over and over to get to the highest dune.
Maati came running up from behind then raced down the other side of a ridge with his arms outstretched screaming “FREEDOM!!!!”
Kahlid called after him “Maati! You are going the wrong way!”
We all stayed at the top of the ridge traversing the dunes laughing and wondering “How does he have this much energy?”
He had to re-climb the dune.

After about 15-20 mins (and several ridges) we made it to the highest dune around. Moira was first followed by the Kahlid and myself followed by the rest of the group except for Bruce and Else who stayed at the top of the first dune.
We cheered on Erica to make the group complete at the top.

I was wiped out once getting up there and just laid flat out trying to catch my breath. Maati was still running up and down the dunes.

Kahlid and David conspired and gave Maati what can only be called a “Saharan wedgy”.
While Matti was sitting they walked up, each grabbed one of Maati’s legs then ran down the dune…. sand filling his the shorts. Maati unphased (and un-impressed) said “You guys are so lame. This is how you really do it.” He hiked back up to the top and rolled down the hill in a cloud of sand with the group in delirious exhausted laughter.

The long day, the 4×4 race to get here in time, and the mad dash up to the top of the dune in the Sahara desert caught up with everyone.
It got quiet as the sun started to hit the horizon and a tranquility embraced the group.

The sun was set, but the orange glow still filled the sky.
Eventually the fine blowing sand started to get into my eyes. Wearing hard contacts I need to be proactive when this happens and I didn’t react in time to prevent the need to take both my contacts out – effectively making me blind for the walk back.
I quietly and closely followed Moira down the ridges and hoped she was going the right way.
[SO- That is what I wrote recollecting the moment, but as you can see from the photos, I was actually following Heather not Moira – so yeah… I was blind]. 🙂

Back at camp they had tea ready for us. I grabbed a glass (still totally blind) and sat on what I thought was a comfy  open stool. I was there for a moment before Davey (at least I think it was Davey) said “uhh, Pete. I think that is the serving tray.”
Yes. In fact it was the serving tray and as comfortable as it was, I moved to a stool that was not the serving tray while I waited for the bags (containing my glasses) to arrive. Soon the bags arrived and the next fun began – the blind guy trying to find his black bag amongst black bags at dusk.
Found, glasses on – all was good again.

After tea, we picked tents and the stars started to come out in a BIG way.
The moon (just a crescent but you could see the entire shape) was also setting soon so we would have a nice dark night. But even with the glow from the sun and moon the Milky Way could be seen clearly. This was going to be Epic. Yes….. EPIC.
We also VERY clearly saw a satellite glide quietly overhead. Stunning.

We went in to the main tent for a nice dinner by candlelight topped off with fruit.
Again a couple of Tarjin and honestly… not sick of it yet.

Then we returned outside to a spectacular show of the universe and a small group circle.

Eventually nature called and true to what Kahlid had said, the bathrooms are not normal…but they were also not just “pick a dune and dig a hole”. In fact, they were pretty great for being in a bunch of dunes.
It was a structure about 50 meters away from the camp, clearly in sight which had two stalls and a center sink area with running water.
When I visited the first time it was dark and lit by candlelight which was kinda neat and cozy – but it was a bathroom, so no curling up with a good book.
Also to not encouraging loitering – the stalls were squats, but nice ones (I’ve been in much scarier squats in Tokyo).
It was a bit of a trick for me to coordinate shorts and the Sahara attire I was wearing, but managed to get it sorted without a mess.
After, there was a bucket and water tap (with plenty of water) to wash things down.
Simple.
If you are unfamiliar with what I’m talking about here and going to do a trip like this you should read up BEFORE the trip for tips and tricks.
As Mimi was headed off to the facilities there was talk that someone had seen a scorpion near the sink. She shrugged it off and ventured in with no scorpion sighted.

It was warm (but not too warm) dry, and a nice breeze (7-10 knots). It was expected to be a very mild night so while we were eating the staff moved our beds out of the tents and into the central area. We were going to sleep under the stars! We claimed or new spots and relaxed gazing at the amazing sky.
The girls were still shuffling beds and it turned out that Mimi wanted Erica closer to her in case a Camel entered the camp.
So brave Mimi with no issues with scorpions in the bathroom (or climbing into our beds) was worried about Bob the Camel sauntering into camp to say “Hi” at night.

After we got settled it was 9:30pm and people were getting pretty tired.
Mimi had a request and gathered everyone to try to light some Chinese lanterns. I’ve always really wanted to do this too and she had lanterns for everyone. We tried a test lantern but the wind was too strong and the lantern would simply not go up. Even as a few people were trying to throw it into the air.
This ended up burning the paper lantern. It was just not to be.

Then about that time, we noticed (much to Mimi’s dismay) a Camel strolled into camp. It was ushered away and everyone plopped back into their beds staring at the sky.
By 10pm most people were asleep under the stars.
The guys had aligned our beds pointing into the wind which was also perpendicular to the Milky Way so it stretched out across the sky over our heads. It was a perfect view.

There was a moment when we were going to fire up a drum session with the guys running the camp, but Kahlid decided against it since it since it seemed everyone was falling asleep. I MUST come back to the desert just to do this some day.

Maati was fighting to stay up and watch the sky but eventually said “My eyes are becoming heavier then I’d like them to be.” and soon was asleep,
I stayed up with David until about 11:30pm watching the stars as David grabbed photos of the sky and our camp under the stars.

Forget 5 star hotels. This was the best million star hotel one could ever hope for.

David snapped photos with no tripod or special gear that would make some amateur astronomers with expensive telescopes very jealous.

By 11pm it became so calm and quiet that when closing my eyes I felt like I was in a hotel room on my own, but then I’d open my eyes to see the expanse of the universe overhead. It was an incredible and natural feeling.
Beyond words and soon I was asleep.
I woke about 2am and noted how the sky had shifted with us sleeping underneath.
Also, it had cooled off but was still comfortable under the bedding provided.

Sometime in the middle of the night a couple of donkeys and camels passed through. Quietly apparently as not everyone saw / heard them.

It was quite an amazing day.

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Today we traveled 147km. (93 road + 50 offroad + 4 camel)