Auberge Amazir Merzouga

First of all, let's get the bad news over with right off the bat. As I said,it's now nearly a week since the desert, and I've meanwhile done a lot of moving around. Suffice I'll get to the magic of riding a camel into the sunset in the Saraha in a moment, but meanwhile I traveled to Quazazate, Marrakech, and now Essaouira. After lugging around those luscious Moroccan rugs a few days, I made the brilliant decision to stop in Marrakech for a ...

... about hard work compared to these people.

We drove through several remote villages along the way, which I loved. People looked at us as we drove through, probably wondering what we were doing there (not many tourists!). Kids waved. We saw open-air shops with freshly slaughtered animals hanging, fruit and vegetable stands, rudimentary cafes, etc. The FDA definitely hasn't found this area - it takes some getting ...

... passed us in the desert. Welike these guys, they love a laugh. Nadine and I left Merete at the hotel and we set out for a hot meal at the only restaurantin town that appeared to be open; Hassan and Abduls restaurant,Cafe Idis Hanris. We eat a meal of a simple omelette and a sandwich during which the owner and the waiter sit andtalk with us about the desert and about food. Hassan who wears along white robe tells us how large groups of people who suffer from rheumatism ...

... let's not go on the highly controversial now, as I only wanted to point out that the desert experience hasn't been that great for me...Beginning with Monty the Land Rover who, alas, doesn't seem to like too much the sand dunes. We've got stuck a number of time and we had to dig our way out, but it's not all his fault as I loaded him with quite a lot of stuff, so now he has a heavy bum. When we finally ...

I've been putting off adding to this blog waiting for the map to start working again but since that doesn't seem to be happening I guess I should just go on. I've spent four years of my life now living on the edge of the Sahara and somehow never managed to ride a camel. That's always the first thing everyone asks about so I thought maybe it was about time to swallow my I'm-not-a-tourist pride and ...

... away, we saw a faint glow. The glow grew brighter and brighter by the second, and all of a sudden, our first glimpse of the moon appeared as it crested over the sand dunes. This was the most amazing site to see. Its totally indescribable. to be out in the sahara desert, no sign of life anywhere, dunes as far as the eye could see, and watching the full moon rise above the desert.... I'll never forget it. No camera could do it justice, though we all ...

... campsite from a lower, more manageable dune. The sun rising over the desert was magnificent as suddenly the distant shadowy shapes morphed into clearly visible different size and shaped sand dunes. We headed back barefoot on our camels - taking Iain's excellent advice. It was a perfectly still morning with an electric blue sky. Some breakfast and a shower to dislodge the sand from all the places it had ventured (and I mean all the places) to then begin the long, long drive back to Marrakech.

... 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 ...

... my food is prepared, climbing up a small cliff face and splashing around with some locals in the stream. The women rest their feet in the water, laughing and pointing at me and all the men want me to take pictures of them when theyjump off the cliff into the shallow water. - We have finally made it to where we take off on the camels. Since noon, we have driven farther into the rocky desert, past duststorms ...

... wearing layers of clothes since with weather is warm during the day but cold at night (as is travelling through higher elevations). It seems that everyone is continually stripping off or putting on clothes as the temperature changes dictate. At the auberge most of us slept in Berber tents and it was mighty chilly. (I even went out and purchased gloves in Fez, as well as long underwear for both Martin and me.) Most everyone struggled to stay warm through the night. One thing about ...