Sahara Desert
Trip Start
May 26, 2006
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3
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Trip End
Jun 26, 2006
Sahara Desert, Morocco
Saturday, June 3, 2006
We met a local on the bus who happened to be a cook at a Kasbah in the desert, so he was giving us a lot of the information that we needed. We were chatty with him, but we didn't trust him entirely so we made sure to say "maybe" and "might" a lot whenever he offered something to us. He gave us his number and showed us to a dumpy hotel which we didn't stay at, then he was on his way. The next morning he seeks us out and is upset that we hadn't called him because we supposedly "promised" to share a taxi to the desert. We apologized, but he requested his phone number back so that he could tear it up and throw it on the ground! That guy was crazy and we were glad to be rid of him when we jumped immediately on the bus to the next town.
This journey was much shorter and the view became more and more desolate. We arrived at the last town before we were going to catch a taxi to the desert. In Morocco, everyone wants to "help" you, so we were immediately harassed by several people on the long walk to the taxi stand. They are harmless, but it gets annoying very quickly when everyone wants to provide a taxi, a tour, or a hotel for you, especially when all you want to do is eat and you can't find a single restaurant that cooks food on Fridays! Eventually we find everything we need and await our taxi/ van to be ready for us, meanwhile putting up with 2 guys suggesting that we stay at their family's Kasbah, but "no obligation" of course.
Soon, we leave the town and the guys behind and drive into the desert! It was very cool to see the first real dunes of pure golden sands! The first Kasbah was right next to a huge dune, but we actually decided to check out the Kasbah that was suggested by the guys because it was cheaper...or so we thought! After a bumpy ride and a few times of getting out digging and pushing, we arrived at our Kasbah. Now usually, there is no water in the desert, but it happened to flood a few days before our arrival for the first time in 5 years, so we had a huge lake between us and the dunes! I was perturbed at first, but I got over it when I coerced (in my broken spanish) our driver, who happened to be the cook there, to use his leaky canoe! So we missed our sunset camel ride and camping in the desert, but we managed a boat ride to the dunes for free! Michael rowed with 2 brooms while I bailed and we conquered the lake in about 20 minutes, only 4 times longer than how long the guy said it would take. So, as the sun was setting hidden behind a mass of clouds, we enjoyed the sand until we were content enough to return to the Kasbah for the evening. We returned from the lake just before a rain storm threatened to drown us in the desert, got cleaned up, had a nice dinner, listened to some local drummers rocking the Kasbah, and then retired to bed so that we could rise before the sun for our camel ride into the dunes.
4am came quickly along with our camels, and we set off with an American photographer and his wife into the dunes. Fortunately he was there, otherwise I would have felt like I was the one holding up the group taking pictures, when actually we both were! We just had to wait for the sun to rise above the clouds for the good light! He ended up taking longer than me, so i chose to walk back because I wanted to take more pictures and not from a camel's back. It was a gorgeous and satisfying walk that has probably given me the best photos I'll have all year! Michael and I also wanted to take another boat trip before the mid-day heat so that we could climb to the highest dune to see the other side, so we ate breakfast quickly, considered and rejected the idea of sand skiing with crappy skis, and headed to the boat. Since the skis wouldn't have worked, I figured the next best thing was to slide down a dune in my slippery sleeping bag...but that didn't work either. Fortunately, we made it to the top...of the next highest dune, and booked it back to the Kasbah to catch our ride back to town. After that town, we are back in the town where we left our big bags and are awaiting our bus to Fez. This town has nothing to offer, so we have been spending the majority of our time on the internet, which explains the long log! Sorry! Although, I have to say, the desert experience that I had beats almost anything else I've ever done, so it deserves a long explanation! Thanks for reading!
