As mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm in the middle of a four-day desert trip to take in more of the country than just the big cities. Yesterday, my guide and I drove from Fes to Merzouga in about seven hours. Today, we began our travels at 10:00 AM by driving around the dunes. My day ended about ten hours later in a cold tent in the middle of the desert. Here's what happened in between.
Day 2: Merzouga
(click here for a map)
The Nomad Palace Hotel: The walls were made of a straw / mortar mix that help cool room temps in the summer and retain heat in the winter. For those of us with allergies, it also gives us something to sneeze about...
From yesterday, the Dromedary Camel has one hump and is the only camel in Morocco. These guys get a 2-foot rope tied around a bent knee at night (making them 3-legged)so they don't stray too far.
The Merzouga Desert is known in Morocco for its reddish tint, which differs from the golden southern desert nearer to the Western Sahara. The reason may be because a hard, compact black desert surrounds the dunes, keeping down dust and other things that impact their natural color.
The first evening's sunset
The second morning began in the village of Khamlia. Thought to originate in Sudan and migrate to Morocco due to the slave trade, the Ganoui tribe now makes music and sells CDs to unsuspecting tourists after playing four songs in their compound. A snippet follows...
The majority of Morocco's population is Berber. Here's a look at their rarely-used alphabet. "Z," represented by the symbol that looks like a guy waving his hands in the air, is on the berber flag, which is blue, yellow and green.
In the foreground, some of that black surface that I mentioned earlier.
Working Hard
Part of the ruins surrounding the 15km x 10km dunes.
Quartz and Kohl are common in this area. This is the type of Kohl that women use to line their eyes. In past generations, most of the caravans would load up on Kohl before making the trip to Timbuktu in Mali some 52 days away. Today, two 17-year olds man the machinery.
A nomad dwelling near the dunes; over twenty different camps can be found in the area. Hospitable enough to give us tea, I felt bad for imposing as we didn't even talk to them during our trip. I was assured that this was normal, but still felt bad. They stay in one place for about a year or two and then move atop dromedary and livestock.
In the clouds sits a kasbah-turned-hotel in front of the dunes.
Merzouga Rush Hour Traffic
Pretty plain...
...but the drive wasn't. Which music clip on this post do you prefer?
Mid-afternoon over the town.
Getting ready with my guide, Mustafa, and "safeena assahara" (ship of the sea), Ali Baba. And that turban's a light shade of blue for a reason!
Requisite camel ride shadow portrait.
Southern dunes before sunset.
Western dunes. The trip into the desert lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. It felt a little longer.
Mustafa, leading us into the dunes. Seeing him hold the lasso to my dromedary, being the leader and guide of my western behind, I felt pretty wimpy.
Green, brown, blue and white.
One of "Mustafa's Marauders," not to be confused with one of Merrill's old boys.
Toward Sunset.
Sunset...and 5 degrees of Celcius.
Our bivouac for the evening. After nine hours inside I gained a hacking cough and the utmost respect for the nomads of old (as well as those who are still living in these types of conditions in other Islamic countries). Little reminders...
Gearing up for our departure the third morning...
Sunrise; not as enjoyable as I pictured it.
"Ugh, my inner thighs." There's a reason cowboys are bow-legged.
The three amigos after our round-trip. It was too early in the morning for Ali Baba.
Overall, the actual trip to the desert was shorter than I thought it would be. However, it was quite sufficient. Taking about an hour each way by Dromedary-back, we covered maybe a mile or mile and a half. The tent activity was light: dinner and sleeping, waiting for the sunrise. The night was cold and, despite being wrapped in 5 wool blankets, I came down with a bug the next day. Good trip; just forgot how cold it actually gets in the desert this time of year!
The trip concludes tomorrow with another ten hours driving south of - and over - the High Atlas to Marrakech.
Great pictures and story. I bet after your drive and dromedary ride (they need stirrups) you are really sore, but what a great way to see the locals.
ReplyDeleteI know you weren't a fan of the sand, but your pics and video were great... they've got me missing the desert like woah. Next trip, maybe...
ReplyDeleteAh! Kohl! I knew it was a mineral, but didn't know it needed to be mined. I thought it just laid around in lumps on the surface, waiting to be picked up and put to use.
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