Tonight we're going all Lawrence of Arabia and heading into the Sahara Desert where we'll be sleeping in a Berber Nomad camp. This promises to be one of the highlights of the trip. To get there we have a five hour drive ahead of us to a town on the edge of the Sahara, followed by a 60 minute camel ride out to the camp. Our plan is to get to the camp in time to witness the sunset.
Our drive starts out across a large plain with a landscape that is very similar to the central plateau back home.
Scattered along the road there are people selling honey in large coke bottles. It looks so strange to see these people pop up all over the place - there are no homes or buildings of any kind around here. I guess they're nomadic people trying to make a few Dirham. They sit there with nothing more than a piece of cloth held up by sticks to protect them from the burning sun.
We cross the plains to the foot of the atlas mountains where we climb and cross a 1907 metre high pass. As we climb, there are dramatic views back down the mountain and across the plains. Stunning rock formations appear that have been forged by the upward pressure of the tectonic plates.
The route we are travelling is the same route that the nomads travelled in their caravans from the northern Sahara. Every few kilometres along the way there are the remains of old stone, clay and mud towers, which were used as navigation for the caravans. Sadly a lot of these are crumbling and collapsing and will eventually succumb to the elements and time.
On our journey we drive through the 150km long Oasis du Ziz. The oasis is made up of 50% Berber and 50% immigrants. The immigrants are people from other North African countries such as Mali, Senegal and were originally used as slaves. Since Morocco gained its independence, the immigrants have been converted to Islam and live freely in the oasis.
Each family has 30-40 date trees with each tree able to produce up to 60kgs of dates. Samir explains that to produce the dates, you need both male and female trees, with one male tree able to pollinate up to 100 female trees. Rather than leaving it to chance, the farmers climb the male trees to extract the pollen and then climb each female tree individually to ensure they are all successfully pollinated.
The people of the oasis used to live in the forts that are still scattered throughout. However these were built during times of conflict and are not at all practical for modern day living, so the locals have moved into smaller homes, leaving the forts to crumble.
During our drive through the oasis we stop on the side of the road to take photos of a stunning gorge. Unfortunately where we stopped there was a dead animal lying nearby and the stench was a bit overpowering, so just a couple of quick snaps and then it was off again. Nice views though!
After a couple of hours on the road we stopped at a large roadside restaurant for nous nous and a chance to stretch our legs, then back on the bus and onwards to our next stop at Er Rachidia. This is a large town which connects the country east/west and north/south and is large enough to have an international airport. A lot of the residents work overseas to support their families and will fly in and out for weeks at a time.
The oasis is split in two by El Rachidia and the differences on each side is quite dramatic. One the first side, the river is clear to see and the trees are less dense with houses scattered amongst the date palms.
Past El Rachidia, the oasis takes a different form and, viewed from high above, the valley is thickly populated by date palms with the houses on either side. Whilst the water flows through the middle, as the vegetation is so thick, it's impossible to see. We stopped at a lookout to look down on the valley and it's beautiful. The densely populated valley floor snakes it's way through the hills as far as the eye can see.
Our lunch stop for the day was at Maison Vallee de Ziz in the oasis. Lunch was a Berber omelette which is made up of a tomato, coriander, parsley, onion, turmeric and cumin base with an egg broken on top of it - the flavours coming through are fantastic and the omelette is delicious. It's cooked in a tagine, which is a ceramic dish that is cooked over an open fire.
Over lunch we find out that the temperature at our camp in the Sahara is too hot and there's a strong wind blowing. Our leader decides to wait at our lunch stop for a further hour or so to see if the temperature drops a bit - it's a little too high and could be dangerous to our health.
For the first time on the trip we've had music playing in the van. It's been a mixture of local Moroccan pop, traditional Moroccan and some stuff that we're used to. I really like the local stuff, traditional and new - it's got some great sound and beats. It's also nice to be able to chill listening to The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Doobie Brothers and others....
After waiting for a while we head back out on the road toward the Sahara. The surrounding area is so dry and flat, the stoney ground stretching for miles.
After about 15 minutes we drove through the small town of Erfoud, which is known as fossil town. Archaeological digs are common in the surrounding desert where all sorts have been found, from small crustaceans through to large dinosaurs. They town have turned this into a tourist attraction with fossil museums and loads of shops selling excavated fossils. Apparently Morocco is the only country in the world where it is permissible to sell fossils.
The ground is changing noticeably, going from stoney to more sand based. In some areas on the roadside we start to see a build-up of sand blown in from the Sahara. Everything is very brown and covered in dust.
After another 40 mins we leave the main road. There's a sign pointing inland but there's no road to speak of, just other tyre tracks across the stoney surface. Ahead of us are the sand dunes of the Sahara. They are beautifully white and reach upwards over 200 metres.
Our camp for the night, Erg (which means shifting sand) Chebbi, is on the other side of the sand dunes.
It's 15 Kim's to the dunes and the going is very slow as Mustafa, our driver, negotiates the uneven terrain. At times we have to slow to a crawl as the surface is so bad. He has to weave his way left and right as we edge our way closer. The wind transforms the surface from day to day so there's no remembering which route he took last time!
We arrived at the Sahara Garden Kasbah and dropped our bags off. We only need to take a backpack with the bare essentials. It'll be sleeping in our clothes tonight - no showers in the desert! After dumping our bags, it was time to get on the camels and head into the Sahara. This is definitely a highlight that we've all been looking forward to.
The camels are such placid animals. They were just crouched on the ground waiting for us. We have two camel trains, with each camel tied behind the other in each train. Samir is going to walk and take photos along the way. The ride to the camp will only take around an hour or so. And then we're off.......
Riding a camel takes a bit of getting used too and it would be fair to say they're not the most comfortable animal to ride. Doesn't matter. We're having fun and we're now away from the permanent buildings on the edge of the desert and are right in amongst the magnificent dunes.
The colour of the dunes has changed. From a distance they looked white, but as we got closer, and then into them, the colour is more pinky.
A nomad guide expertly leads our camels around the ridges to make our ride as flat as possible. At times, that's not possible and the camels lurch forward as their legs slide through the soft sand. As we progress the view of the dunes continuously changes. We turn left or right and move ahead and everything looks different. Some of the sand dunes are huge. It's like being in the foothills of a huge range of hills, except they're not dirt and grass, they're sand.
Reaching our camp was a bit of a relief for slightly sores bums, thighs and manly bits!!! The camp itself is really nice. It's very simple and looks like a square. On three sides there are connected nomad tents (made up of woollen sections that I mentioned in a previous update) that are for sleeping. There are four mattresses, sheets, blankets and cushions in each tent - luxury! On the fourth side there is a simple woollen framing which tables butt up too. The floor in the middle is covered by beautifully handmade carpets.
The idea is that we put the tables on the carpet for dinner and then push them back to the side and use the carpets as the floor for sleeping, if the tents are too hot. It is VERY hot and there's no way we'll be sleeping in the tents. If we like, we also have the option to take our mattress out on to the sand outside the camp enclosure and sleep wherever we want. Immediately Cindy and I know that that is exactly what we'll be doing!
The camp is set at the bottom of a massive sand dune and Samir then informs us that there's a snowboard if anyone wants to ride it (sitting only). One of the team does, so they head off up the dune with it. Cindy and I opt just to climb to the top and check out the views.
Holy shit! Talk about a hard climb. It feels damn near vertical and it's so hard. Every step we took, our feet would slide back to almost alongside our other foot. By the time we reached the top, our lungs were burning and I was gasping for breath (not sure about Cindy, she seemed to handle it better!!).
Dinner was Harira soup, a little bland but very welcome, followed by chicken targine, which was really good. Once dinner was done it was time for the locals to have a bit of a sing-song. We all gathered around a camp fire and our two camel leaders, who were also the cooks, then got out their bongo drums and sang us a few native Berber songs.
By the time the singing finished it was nearing midnight, so bedtime! We want to get up early to see the sunrise. Cindy and I dragged our mattresses out into the sand and settled in for the night. Another excellent day!
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