Day #3-4 in Morocco, Day #12-13 traveling
(Like my previous Morocco post, scroll to the bottom for some great pics.)
We woke up waaaaaay early, talking 6 am, to begin our trek to the Sahara desert. Marrakech is really far from the Sahara, so our bus left at 7 in the morning from the KFC. Two more Polish Fulbrighters joined us, along with a couple from Brazil.
Driving in Morocco is something else, thank goodness we had a native driver. There aren't really lanes in the cities, especially in the market places. Cars, bikes, motorcycles, donkeys, horses, pushcarts, and pedestrians all occupy the same spaces. I view it as a small miracle that I didn't witness anyone getting hit by a vehicle. Although, at one point, a guy stopped his bike in front of me (purposefully) causing me to fall on top of him. All my games of Frogger growing up definitely came in handy, as well as years of fearlessly crossing the streets of Detroit!
The way to the desert goes through the High Atlas Mountains via the Tizi-n-Tichka pass. If I hadn't been frightened of roads in Poland or backwoods Louisiana I was terrified a few times on this trip. We'd be barreling up the mountain side on a two lane road that's twisting and turning with numerous blind spots and our guide just zipped around a slower truck in front of us. Or, a few times a semi truck would be coming the opposite way and our bus would be in ITS lane, and magically we passed each other on the proper sides of the roads without a problem.
We stopped in Ait Benhaddou, a popular site for movie and tv show filming. The most famous movie filmed in this city was Gladiator and the most recent season of Game of Thrones. A fortified city slash miniature castle, Ait Benhaddou was built for the children of a Moroccan man who had numerous wives. Whenever a new child was born, he added onto the city, creating the massive structure that we got to explore. Borrowing from my sister's adventurous spirit, I explored a few hidden doorways that led out onto thatched roofs, a few of which were not in good shape so I had to turn back.
Arriving in Zagora, a city on the edge of the desert, we met our camels and guides. Morocco is home to two groups of people, Berbers and Moroccans. The Berbers are a nomadic people, many of which still live in the mountains and desert. Morocco is home to around 32 million people, but the majority of them live outside the major cities. Local guides are Berbers, also called Saharawi, who build camps for tourists on the edge of the Sahara
Mounting the camel was one of the most hysterical moments of my life. It's an incredibly strange feeling...and since I was the first one, I had NO idea what to expect. My camel was quite a silly guy...he kept making weird gurgly noises and spitting...the only camel that was doing this. Also, for future reference, camel tongues are HUGE! At first, I thought he was just blowing really weirdly colored spit bubbles because it was a giant growth out of the side of his mouth. I soon realized that it's his tongue though.
After about an hour on a camel (painful but rewarding) as the sun set on the desert, we arrived in our camp. Since we only had two days, we didn't get to see the "proper" desert with lots of sand dunes and such, but we were still IN the Sahara! It was dark when we arrived in the camp, but it was kind of easy to make out the circle of tents (permanent tents) situated around a camp fire. There was one tent designated as the restaurant, and in typical Muslim style, we didn't wear our shoes into the tent. In terms of roughing it, our accommodation were quite wonderful...we even had proper toilets!
Dinner was prepared in traditional Berber style as a chicken tagine and the most delicious bread in the world. There are many different types of tagine, but this one was vegetables and chicken. After dinner, we were treated to some mint tea, which I keep raving about Moroccan tea. And then the Saharawi men started the fire and we hung out under the stars while they played their drums and sang. The Arabic singing definitely made me miss my late nights with my Saudi friends at CMU when they'd start singing and dancing randomly at three in the morning after we were done with dinner.
The campfire was necessary because it was FREEZING outside. I couldn't believe how cold the desert got at night. Our guide, Andy, said that during the summer, it stays warm enough to just sleep on a dune. While I wouldn't want to deal with the heat during the afternoon, sleeping on a sand dune sounds like great fun. Perhaps the best part of the night was looking at the stars. It's so dark, the stars just sparkle so brightly. It's absolutely incredible...and I even saw a shooting star.
It was a long day, so everyone went to bed pretty early. I stayed up chatting with a Moroccan guide, two Spanish girls, and two of the Berber guides (although the Berbers didn't speak English very well). The Berber guys let me play with their drums, which was fun even though I wasn't anywhere near as good as they are. We talked about a lot of different things. The Spanish girls visited the U.S. last year and talked about how much they loved different parts of the states, which was nice to hear.
Sleeping was hard because it was so cold. It's probably one of the worst nights of sleep I got on my trip (which is saying a lot seeing as how there were guys in Vienna stumbling into my hostel room at four in the morning wasted out of their minds and turning on the lights and whatnot). There were a ton of super thick, soft blankets so once you snuggled up it wasn't so bad except for my poor nose!
I rolled out of bed early the next morning to watch the sunrise over the desert, which was beautiful. Everything on this trip was spectacularly beautiful and stunning. My pictures capture a fraction of the real life image, and looking through the pictures my breath was still taken away. So you will have to imagine what it was like in real life.
After the sunrise, we grabbed a quick breakfast prepared by the Berbers and were off to the camels again. This time, I mounted the camel beautifully! But...my camel was a bit more stubborn this time and slipped out of the rope holding it in line, stopping in the middle of the desert as the rest of the group continued on! Since I was the last one, it took a second for them to notice me calling out that the left me. The Berber guide shouted, "Bye bye!" from the front of the group, which concerned me a little bit because last night, he told me I should come live in the desert to have babies. At this point, I was already convinced that I want to come back to Morocco, but I definitely didn't want a solo camel ride in the desert! He eventually came and retrieved my camel, tying me back up to the group.
My camel really didn't want me to leave the desert though. When we got back to the city to get in our buses, everyone dismounted their camels...except me. My guy wouldn't sit down for the guide and I was stuck up on the camel for a good five minutes waiting for the obnoxious camel to acquiesce to the guide's demands for him to lay down.
Another six hour drive back to Marrakech awaited us. It was a really long time to sit in a van, but definitely worth the camel ride and night in the Sahara. Next time I come to Morocco, I'll do at least a three day trip so I can go deeper into the desert. Our guide told us there are entire Berber cities scattered throughout the desert and we stay at one of those.
(Like my previous Morocco post, scroll to the bottom for some great pics.)
We woke up waaaaaay early, talking 6 am, to begin our trek to the Sahara desert. Marrakech is really far from the Sahara, so our bus left at 7 in the morning from the KFC. Two more Polish Fulbrighters joined us, along with a couple from Brazil.
Driving in Morocco is something else, thank goodness we had a native driver. There aren't really lanes in the cities, especially in the market places. Cars, bikes, motorcycles, donkeys, horses, pushcarts, and pedestrians all occupy the same spaces. I view it as a small miracle that I didn't witness anyone getting hit by a vehicle. Although, at one point, a guy stopped his bike in front of me (purposefully) causing me to fall on top of him. All my games of Frogger growing up definitely came in handy, as well as years of fearlessly crossing the streets of Detroit!
The way to the desert goes through the High Atlas Mountains via the Tizi-n-Tichka pass. If I hadn't been frightened of roads in Poland or backwoods Louisiana I was terrified a few times on this trip. We'd be barreling up the mountain side on a two lane road that's twisting and turning with numerous blind spots and our guide just zipped around a slower truck in front of us. Or, a few times a semi truck would be coming the opposite way and our bus would be in ITS lane, and magically we passed each other on the proper sides of the roads without a problem.
We stopped in Ait Benhaddou, a popular site for movie and tv show filming. The most famous movie filmed in this city was Gladiator and the most recent season of Game of Thrones. A fortified city slash miniature castle, Ait Benhaddou was built for the children of a Moroccan man who had numerous wives. Whenever a new child was born, he added onto the city, creating the massive structure that we got to explore. Borrowing from my sister's adventurous spirit, I explored a few hidden doorways that led out onto thatched roofs, a few of which were not in good shape so I had to turn back.
Arriving in Zagora, a city on the edge of the desert, we met our camels and guides. Morocco is home to two groups of people, Berbers and Moroccans. The Berbers are a nomadic people, many of which still live in the mountains and desert. Morocco is home to around 32 million people, but the majority of them live outside the major cities. Local guides are Berbers, also called Saharawi, who build camps for tourists on the edge of the Sahara
Mounting the camel was one of the most hysterical moments of my life. It's an incredibly strange feeling...and since I was the first one, I had NO idea what to expect. My camel was quite a silly guy...he kept making weird gurgly noises and spitting...the only camel that was doing this. Also, for future reference, camel tongues are HUGE! At first, I thought he was just blowing really weirdly colored spit bubbles because it was a giant growth out of the side of his mouth. I soon realized that it's his tongue though.
After about an hour on a camel (painful but rewarding) as the sun set on the desert, we arrived in our camp. Since we only had two days, we didn't get to see the "proper" desert with lots of sand dunes and such, but we were still IN the Sahara! It was dark when we arrived in the camp, but it was kind of easy to make out the circle of tents (permanent tents) situated around a camp fire. There was one tent designated as the restaurant, and in typical Muslim style, we didn't wear our shoes into the tent. In terms of roughing it, our accommodation were quite wonderful...we even had proper toilets!
Dinner was prepared in traditional Berber style as a chicken tagine and the most delicious bread in the world. There are many different types of tagine, but this one was vegetables and chicken. After dinner, we were treated to some mint tea, which I keep raving about Moroccan tea. And then the Saharawi men started the fire and we hung out under the stars while they played their drums and sang. The Arabic singing definitely made me miss my late nights with my Saudi friends at CMU when they'd start singing and dancing randomly at three in the morning after we were done with dinner.
The campfire was necessary because it was FREEZING outside. I couldn't believe how cold the desert got at night. Our guide, Andy, said that during the summer, it stays warm enough to just sleep on a dune. While I wouldn't want to deal with the heat during the afternoon, sleeping on a sand dune sounds like great fun. Perhaps the best part of the night was looking at the stars. It's so dark, the stars just sparkle so brightly. It's absolutely incredible...and I even saw a shooting star.
It was a long day, so everyone went to bed pretty early. I stayed up chatting with a Moroccan guide, two Spanish girls, and two of the Berber guides (although the Berbers didn't speak English very well). The Berber guys let me play with their drums, which was fun even though I wasn't anywhere near as good as they are. We talked about a lot of different things. The Spanish girls visited the U.S. last year and talked about how much they loved different parts of the states, which was nice to hear.
Sleeping was hard because it was so cold. It's probably one of the worst nights of sleep I got on my trip (which is saying a lot seeing as how there were guys in Vienna stumbling into my hostel room at four in the morning wasted out of their minds and turning on the lights and whatnot). There were a ton of super thick, soft blankets so once you snuggled up it wasn't so bad except for my poor nose!
I rolled out of bed early the next morning to watch the sunrise over the desert, which was beautiful. Everything on this trip was spectacularly beautiful and stunning. My pictures capture a fraction of the real life image, and looking through the pictures my breath was still taken away. So you will have to imagine what it was like in real life.
After the sunrise, we grabbed a quick breakfast prepared by the Berbers and were off to the camels again. This time, I mounted the camel beautifully! But...my camel was a bit more stubborn this time and slipped out of the rope holding it in line, stopping in the middle of the desert as the rest of the group continued on! Since I was the last one, it took a second for them to notice me calling out that the left me. The Berber guide shouted, "Bye bye!" from the front of the group, which concerned me a little bit because last night, he told me I should come live in the desert to have babies. At this point, I was already convinced that I want to come back to Morocco, but I definitely didn't want a solo camel ride in the desert! He eventually came and retrieved my camel, tying me back up to the group.
My camel really didn't want me to leave the desert though. When we got back to the city to get in our buses, everyone dismounted their camels...except me. My guy wouldn't sit down for the guide and I was stuck up on the camel for a good five minutes waiting for the obnoxious camel to acquiesce to the guide's demands for him to lay down.
Another six hour drive back to Marrakech awaited us. It was a really long time to sit in a van, but definitely worth the camel ride and night in the Sahara. Next time I come to Morocco, I'll do at least a three day trip so I can go deeper into the desert. Our guide told us there are entire Berber cities scattered throughout the desert and we stay at one of those.
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| The crazy windy mountain pass |
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| The beginnings of the Atlas Mountains |
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| This kid snuck into my picture...his traditional outfit was great especially after I noticed he had an I-Pod cord sneaking out of it. |
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| Seeing snow when I was wearing a t-shirt was rather odd |
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| I don't know why I'm so obsessed with palm trees...but I think they're awesome! |
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| The film location for Gladiator, and a great place to explore |
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| Another shot through a missing door in the city |
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| Photo from the top of the fortified city |
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| I'm almost to the desert! |
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| Zagora, an oasis of palm trees right before the desert starts |
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| My camel! Right before the Berber guide told me to jump on! |
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| Sunset in the desert |
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| Sunset in the desert part 2 |
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| A sing-a-long, except I didn't know the words OR the language. So it was more like a listen-a-long |
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| The sun's sneaking up the mountains |
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| Found it! |
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| Our small camp nestled in the edge of the Sahara |
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| The fire pit surrounded by our sleeping tents |
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| CAMEL ON THE LOOSE! That's me on his back... |
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| This guy's riding a motorcycle with one hand and using the other one to hold onto his new television set. |
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| Camel tongue...I saw a lot of them on the trip! |
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| Camel kisses anyone?!? |
I'm Said i welcome to the beautiful moroccan land and quiet magic desert , we will be happy to share with you all great moments of your holidays in morocco,We are berber people born and raised in the desert with our family in southern Morocco, Our childhood was with nomadic life, traveling around the desert with the family, Every month we change the home to nother home looking for a green place for our animales as camels and goats ,Our experience started with guiding the guests from a several hotels in merzouga desert, We learned many langues as English, Spanish, French, Portugues , with the parents we learned our mother langues Berber and Arabic as my second language from the same religion of Islam ,Now after nine years of guiding the travelers from around the world in morocco,We started from few years ago to organize Camel trekking in erg chebbi desert for spent one night in desert by camels ,and more nights like nomade people in their old life ,Trekking in merzouga desert,Yoga meditation with all necessary , Rent 4x4 to explore the area of merzouga , but we avoid the sand dunes to respect the value of the nature, to discover the environment and to teach you about our culture .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.visit-ergchebbi-desert.com/index.html
I'm Said i welcome to the beautiful moroccan land and quiet magic desert , we will be happy to share with you all great moments of your holidays in morocco,We are berber people born and raised in the desert with our family in southern Morocco, Our childhood was with nomadic life, traveling around the desert with the family, Every month we change the home to nother home looking for a green place for our animales as camels and goats ,Our experience started with guiding the guests from a several hotels in merzouga desert, We learned many langues as English, Spanish, French, Portugues , with the parents we learned our mother langues Berber and Arabic as my second language from the same religion of Islam ,Now after nine years of guiding the travelers from around the world in morocco,We started from few years ago to organize Camel trekking in erg chebbi desert for spent one night in desert by camels ,and more nights like nomade people in their old life ,Trekking in merzouga desert,Yoga meditation with all necessary , Rent 4x4 to explore the area of merzouga , but we avoid the sand dunes to respect the value of the nature, to discover the environment and to teach you about our culture .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.visit-ergchebbi-desert.com/index.html