Tony and Liz's Travel Adventures: MOROCCO: Merzouga and the Sahara

Moroccan Mosque

Billboard Pic of King Mohammed VI

Up to this point we were mostly travelling through areas that as you could imagine - dry, dusty and parched. One thing that stood out more than anything in each town or village we passed through, no matter the size, from a distance the most recognizable landmark was the Mosque. All other surrounding buildings were lower which allowed everyone to hear, loud and clearly, the “Call to Allah” over the PA system and to observe the 5 Pillars of Islam. (http://www.islam101.com/dawah/pillars.html)

Another thing we noticed throughout Morocco were large billboards of the King. A story we were told is that the King grants large tracts to land to the people enabling them to build their own homes, however he (the Royal family companies) undertake all the infrastructure and development funding needed to establish a town or village. We saw many of these, sometimes in harsh environments but you could already see signs of growth.

This day we were heading to the desert, but not just any desert. It was to be the Grand Daddy of them all and we were pretty excited about that. But first we had to cross the Mid Atlas Mountains, where it actually snows during the winter and Moroccans go to ski. Yes, that is correct – ski-ing in Morocco, but only for those who can afford it. And affordability means there is another Royal Palace located here? To say that Mischiliffen (near Ifrane, 1600 mtrs above sea level) is a breath of fresh air to say the least. Being quite high up in the Middle Atlas Mountains, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the Swiss Alps because the style of houses are built based on Swiss designs ie. high peak roofs, balconies and built in cedar which grows in this area. They actually call it "Little Switzerland".

Little Switzerland in Morocco

Something else that surprised us was that in the dense cedar forests there are packs of monkeys living in and around the mountains. Our driver stopped along the roadside and before we knew it, the curious monkeys came out looking for food, a practice which our guide discouraged us from doing. It seemed like they even posed for the cameras for food. Now this is a practice that we were starting to get used to and not just with monkeys but also with human beings. For example beggars, kids, just about anyone who was not fervently bent on participating in Ramadan, and if you happened to or wanted to take a photo, would ask for dirhams (MAD) in return. Another practice we discouraged ourselves from doing. They were almost relentless !!

Moroccan Monkeys

At the beginning of the Moroccan summer, Berber families move camp to escape the searing heat of the desert, relocating for the cooler temperatures in the mountains. It was explained that the Berbers usually go to the same areas year after year, and it is because of a near-by water sources, the land is fertile with sufficient food for their animals i.e. chooks, sheep, goats, and close proximity to sell their crafts at nearby villages. The temperatures even in the Atlas Mountains can be quite scorching and the shy Berbers use earth to pack the roof of the tent as a way of reducing the heat inside. We found that the earth also acts as a camouflage as the tents are usually set down into valleys and near small waterways. We were invited to go inside a tent to see how the Berbers live and to us it was very much like inside the riads – rugs on the bare ground, minimal furniture with a 1 burner gas stove, saucepans and utensils, nothing more – very simple.

Berber tent

In the Berber Tent - We couldn't help
thinking what the keys were for.

Moroccan village market

Back on the road we encountered a “Situation” – a bus full of people had come to grief with a Rock wall on a high winding road leading into the mountains. Apparently the bus had taken a wide turn around a curve and with a truck coming the other way, the bus driver turned a hard right and side-swiped the bus which ended up in a small ditch between the edge of the road and the rock wall.

High winding road with 200 mtr drop

We were thankful for 2 things. One, that no one was seriously injured in the incident which only happened a few minutes before we arrived on the scene. And secondly, that with some skilful manoeuvring and directing from other drivers, our bus driver was able to get enough clearance between the damaged bus (still wedged) and the other vehicle involved i.e. the truck, to continue on our journey.

A Transit Van in front of us -
we were in a 16 seater Mini Bus - Squeezy

We were all keen to get to the Sahara and didn’t want to wait on that high mountainous 2-lane road waiting for police, ambulance, tow truck etc., to delay our trip any more than we had to. Secretly, I think our bus driver was feeling the same way and the reason why he managed to drive between the bus and truck with the narrowest of margins.

Still the temperature was creeping up, and for some reason our driver had the front windows wound down. Maybe he had heard that old joke – the Australian, Irishman and American in the desert….and the punch line is The Irishman is carrying a CAR DOOR – Why? So that when it gets really hot he can wind down the window to let the cool air in. We thought maybe that is the way Moroccans keep cool. So for the rest of our trip our driver had the window down. But inside that bus it was getting bloody hotter.

And what I forgot to mention was that up to this point in the trip our Guide dressed quite formally in long sleeve shirt, smart trousers and leather shoes even when we visited Volubilis. But on this particular morning Yacine met us in the hotel foyer wearing his Djallebal.

Yacine in his Djallebal in Fez Inn Hotel

We made another couple of stops. The first to overlook an oasis from a high point on the road. We couldn’t help but check out a display of fossils and crystals for sale and these would be only a small taste of more we would see on our journey.

Fossils and crytals

The second stop was to actually go into an oasis to see firsthand family or community farms, and we were shown how precious water was diverted through channels to supply each plot. The types of crops grown ranged from olives, dates (they grow everywhere and anywhere), peaches, figs, mint, parsley and mostly the basis staples in a Moroccan diet. It was also a cool place to be literally.

Oasis

Pool at Auberge Sahara

Back on the road, back into the heat – both on and off the bus, we were approaching the desert and on our way to Merghouza to stay at Auberge Sahara and it has a swimming pool. It even has the word "Sahara" in tiles on the bottom of the pool - just so you remember where you are...LOL. And don't think that a frosty cold beer would be on the cards. Remember...this is Morocco, Ramadam and Islam - Drinking alcohol is a No No! (well not everywhere - but very very hard to get).

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THE SAHARA

Sand Storm heading in

As with most of our adventures there are times that Mother Nature gets in the way. This time Mother Nature welcomed us to the Sahara with a sand storm? Yes - and it was coming directly towards us. More about that later. But if anyone asks, “How do you know where the desert starts and ends”… we can tell you there is definite point and our accommodation would be right there , the “Auberge Sahara”, and it was literally between the start and end of the Sahara.

At the front of the Auberge facing the town/village of Merghouza the land was flat with grey/black sand almost like a fine shale. At the back were golden, almost ochre coloured sand dunes rising up to a couple of hundred metres high and that was all you could see in the distance. But that was something we didn’t see until the sand storm passed a couple of hours after our arrival. And it was amazing!

Auberge Sahara

On the roof of the Auberge
after the Sand Storm

Shale meets Sand Dunes

As for the sandstorm – there was no way of getting out of it and with the strength of the wind blowing you couldn’t even open your mouth or smile without fine grit in your mouth and teeth, sand in your ears/eyes and through your hair that even 2 washes didn’t get it all out. The floor in our room was covered in sand which came in from under the door and gaps between windows and sills, and the room itself was so unbearably hot that even the cold water ran at close to boiling point.

We had to cool down and the most sensible thing to do was to jump in the pool and rehydrate. We were already drinking anywhere between 3-6 litres each a day and we were all feeling really, really flat. Someone had spotted a temperature gauge somewhere back in a remote village – 47 degrees. No wonder!

Yacine called a little briefing session to tell us what was planned for the next couple of days. Rest, swimming, rest, more swimming, what you should and shouldn’t eat if you had the “runny tummy”, camel ride into a desert camp (try to get rid of that runny tummy before camel ride this because of lack of toilet facilities out there ), and to just chill out. “Chill” may not be the right word to use in the Sahara. Another suggestion he made was that we should think about sleeping either on the roof (Uh-huh!), or outside around the pool. Everyone opted for the poolside.

Sleeping by the Pool

Yacine also went on to tell us something EVEN MORE IMPORTANT – the AIR-CON in the mini bus was NOT WORKING. This explains everything. And we thought it was the Moroccan way. Thing was, there would be no disruption to our plans and another replacement mini bus was on its way and be there in the morning. We’d also have a new driver.

So good things were happening! Just before sunset the sandstorm passed so a few of us decided to get our feet into the sand, climb a few dunes and just check out what was beyond – we saw a camel train in the distance….and a young Berber guy, Omar, who just appeared out of nowhere (you’re thinking Omar Shariff, right?) Anyway, Omar was wandering the desert for a reason, and that was to sell fossils but not before he told us his story of being poor, large family, moved from home to earn money etc. etc. (read that as looking for unsuspecting tourists). We were impressed with his story, Rachel and Mike even bought a fossil from him, but we were more interested in his clothing – if only we had his turban and scarves during the sand storm to keep the sand out of our ears/nose/hair and every other place we had to wash it out of.

Omar and the fossils

That night we slept under the stars by the pool and watched numerous shooting stars and satellites crossing the clear desert night sky……ahhh! Then sometime during the early hours of the morning, still dark, we were awoken by this cool, NO - a cold desert wind, that a few of us had to grab blankets from inside our rooms (still hot from yesterday’s fiery temperature).

During our camel ride it was interesting to see that occasionally we would see litter left by some ignorant people who have total disregard for the environment, regardless of where it is. But in this part of the world, and like most places we’ve seen in Morocco this was no different. But it did strike us that the Berbers are concerned about their ‘back yard’ and an example of that was at the desert camp.

You will recall that we had to carry some toilet paper supplies and, you will also recall that there were no toilet facilities in the camp. To overcome this, we were issued with little plastic bags in which to place used ‘toot’ paper. This then goes into a bigger receptacle to be disposed of at a later date. It is a little effort that will go a long way.

And true to his word, the next morning our new bus and driver were out front to take us to another little Sahara village where we would see a dancing/singing spiritual group who are descendants of African slaves brought to Morocco but now live freely. After being served hot Mint Tea we were entertained by their song and music, mainly chanting devoted to and about Allah, which was almost eerie. But quite surprisingly they also played a number of songs that got us all up and dancing, all played on ancient drums, guitars and other instruments.

Singing, Dancing Pigeons

These guys also had a strange name – “Pigeons du Sable”. (Furry pigeons ??) It was fun and we all came away enlightened by the experience.

Visual Polution even in the Sahara

Our itinerary for the rest of the day:

1. Swimming Pool

2. Free time

3. Camel ride into the Western Sahara where we would spend the night, under the stars or in a Berber tent in the desert – and nearly a 2 hour ride on a Camel.

Not sure how long the swimming was but later in the afternoon 6 of us decided to use our free time for a Mystery tour of the local village. Actually mystery is probably not the right word and should be more like – entering Aladdin’s Cave. After walking a few streets, and there weren’t that many of them, or people for that matter, somehow we discovered this shop front with rugs, scarves, water etc in the front. Because we’d all eaten sand the day before and cautious because we were going into the desert we decided to buy some turbans to cover our faces, eyes, ears. It wasn’t until the store keeper, in broken English, ushered us into the back of the store that we were VERY SURE it was Aladdin’s Cave. OMG !!!

Phone Booth outside Aladdin's Cave

The back of the store, about 5 times the size of the front office, had every conceivable item you could think of, ie fossils, scarves, Djallabells, Berber necklaces, earrings and other gold and silver jewellery, glasses and even those corny Rastaman beanies with the dreadlocks – and it was stocked from floor to ceiling and beyond – every little nook and cranny was filled to the brim. And even better than anything else, the owner of that “One Man - DFO”, had frozen bottled water !!!

Aladdin's cave found in Morocco

There was another strange thing that we saw in Aladdin's cave and that was a Moroccan who was the spitting image of Tony. They say people have their doubles and seriously this guy in blue is a dead-ringer, and he even let me take his photo !!

We had a deadline to meet and we needed to get back to the Auberge for our camel ride to the desert camp. They were already lined up out back ready to go and each of us were sized up with the size of the camel. Yes, it was true! Brian and Tony were on the 2 x “Grande” camels.

There was another important point that Yacine mentioned ie. we should be mindful about damage to our cameras from the desert winds and sand that blow up any time, day or night, with sand getting stuck in the lens. For us this would be serious because of how precious our photo memories are. The answer – keep the camera in a plastic zip-lock sandwich bag (Yes, I’d packed a few for the trip).

Once we were on the camels we were on our way, dipping down and climbing over sand dunes and bum-grinding on the backs of these camels. (Are we there yet? ).

Desert camp and Berber tents

With just under 2 hours we had to entertain ourselves somehow (actually to get our minds off our sore bums), so we decided to give our Camels names. Tony had Socks, Rachel had Bob Marley and I had Blossom. Now Blossom was a real Go-ahead girl, she had long eye lashes, pierced ears and a nose ring, with just the biggest smile you ever did see.

Blossom - Isn't she Cute ??

In the distance we could see the camp and it was a welcome sight and to get over the ‘numb bum’ feeling. And we had to do it again on sunrise tomorrow!!

We had a night under the stars again and it was a little like a competition to see who could spot the most “Shooting Stars and Satellites”. Each and every one of us saw a satellite that “flashed” so brightly that it took us all by surprise. It definitely wasn’t a shooting star because we all saw it move slowly across the sky until it was just overhead.

By that stage we were that buggered and sore that we all quietened up and tucked in for the night. That night not everyone could sleep that well but it wasn’t until we went for our “wee” little walks in the morning that we saw proof that we’d been watched through the night. We’d spotted paw prints and what looked like lizard trails (and camel poo) on the sand.

TJ with Socks

Maybe there was something else that had been watching us from even further away!! Let me explain … We were in the Western Sahara only about 30 kms away from the Algerian border – there is much territorial and terrorist tension and activity between the 2 countries and in very recent times the activity had increased considerably.

Being in this part of the world internet is not always reliable or available. It wasn’t until we were at our next destination that we’d received a “Smart Traveller” email alert for the Western Sahara – DO NOT TRAVEL. The only thing missing from the Alert was flashing lights and ringing bells. But too bad - the email was 2 days late - we’d seen the spy satellite take pictures of us AND we were outta there !! But Geez we had a great time !!

Back on the camels in the morning headed for Sahara Auberge for much needed showers and on to the next part of the trip, Todra Gorge.