Dar El Khamlia Merzouga

... pics so it was all good. We stopped for lunch and for pictures along the way. It was such an amazing drive. The landscape shifted from farmland to dry rocky terrain, to prairies full of blooming flowers in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. As we approached the mountains we saw snow covering the peaks in the distance. We drove up and through the mountains and back down the other side into the hot arrid desert ...

Big day of travel today - 10 hours into the desert, then riding on camels into a nomad camp. Stopped briefly to play with monkeys and have a snowfight. Where else but Morocco could you go from snow to desert in a day? Got to the desert in time to see sunset, but rode camels to the camp by moonlight, a surreal experience. Had a fantastic night at the camp in Berber tents - we even had music from our hosts. Quite cold in the desert!

... Although it's modern, the architecture and interior was very authentic, using mud and straw bricks and traditional decorative detailing in the walls. From here we arranged a camel ride into the Erg Chebbi sand dunes, to spend a night under a Berber tent in the Sahara desert. We set off at 3.30pm on camelback through the dunes. Dad found it rather uncomfortable and complained that men aren't designed to sit on camels. After ...

... used in many films, most recently for the Gladiator with Russel Crow. We also stopped at Tangier Gorge, which is a beautiful chisseled out gorge in the mountains with a great swimming hole, which was perfect for refreshing ourselves after sitting in the unairconditioned van for so long. None of us had our bathingsuits with us, so we peeled off the clothes down to our undies and jumped into the freezing water. Aaahh! I was a bit worried considering the ...

... whipped into your face and eyes by the wind. Our guides fashioned our nomadic-desert headwear into the traditional "protective" style and it was incredible how immediate the desert changed from unbearable, violent and painful to just desert. They covered the ears, nose, mouth, neck and head and the edges of sunglasses and suddenly everything was back to calm. Not sure what happened before sunglasses as these provided a great deal of assistance. The camel ride ...

... After Stacy removed the insect that found a happy home between her own dunes, we decided to explore. What we found was that there were hundreds of new insect and animal tracks that all lead into our campsite. Crazy to think that we slept outside while the animals were having a party in our camp. I was amazed to find that some of the dunes that Stacy and I destroyed by playing in them were recreated as new the ...

... sitting down on your knees and stretching forward, head down with your hands stretching to the wall in front. Its superb for uncricking all the cricked bits in your back and neck, although in a concession to road safety I merely place my ass on the back seat and keep my head up when stretching out my back. Oncoming cars can alter your posture quite horrendously. Over 400 kms notched up and we are surprised to have reached Erfoud, gateway to the middle ...

From Casablanca we headed to Marrakech - the heart of Morocco. Here, there are endless things to see and do... so the first thing we did was immediately book a trip out of town! If you've been keeping up to date with our blog, you know that we've seen a TON of animals since we've been in Africa, but there was one animal that we still hadn't seen - a camel! Also, we'd had our fill of chaotic medinas in Fes and Casablanca and were itching ...

... an open centre. Along the way we passed many shops selling various rocks and fossils. About 45 minutes prior to our destination, "Auberge Yasmin", a riad near Erg Chebbi (not far from the Algerian border), we left the paved highway to travel on "hammada" or stony desert, a rough sandy track marked at various points with rocks. Poor Arlene came down with the flu on the way and I'm sure that last three-quarters of an hour was pure torture. Yuri was also not feeling well. We have all ...

... walk down a little hill, the one you have to go back up could seem ten times as high. Within an hour or so, you would be exhausted, no further ahead and you would die. There would not likely be anyone to come to you rescue. That being said, I did fall into a deep sleep. The sun again rose at 5:30 a.m. My strong sense of bravery overtook me, I'd made it through the night. As I made my way towards the door a scorpion scampered past my bare feet. I sheepishly pointed it ...