Auberge Tombouctou Merzouga

... hopped on a trusty camel, and galomphed off into the dunes for an hour and half into the sunset.

I was quite lucky as the folks I chose to do it with was a private camp all by itself, and... there was only one other tourist lad (from Germany, very quiet, gentle, and spoke a good bit of English) Often, there can be large groups that o/n in large camps - all that yapping amid the splendor of the dunes - ack, la, la shukran - no thanks ...

... and try out the drums. We blanked out on songs, but tried some Bob Marley plus a few cheesy camp tunes. I preferred when they sang the tribal songs - just love the sound of the drums and the tribal chants - it is so hypnotic! I recorded a little so check out the attached videos. It was pitch black so you can't see them, but can hear them!







Several of us decided to sleep outside, rather ...

... to open up his basic general store so we could buy camel trek desert supplies. We bought toilet paper, batteries and soap and lollies for some nomad children whose family we were going to be visiting. The store owner kept chasing away a pack of ten children who were hanging out at the front door of the shop with wooden spinning top toys for us to leave the store. They were hoping for a little candy or a couple of dirhams each. When we left the store, the kids grabbed at ...

... mountains. We had lunch at a womans house who Mohammed knows from the peace corps. She was so lovely and we had a FEAST! I even washed my hands the "Moroccan way". After completely stuffing ourselves we headed back on the bus for a four hour drive to Errachidia where we bought water and scarves before driving another hour into Merzugou where we finally got on our camels to ride into the Sahara. There was a sand storm when ...

... pour nourrir sa famille ; les 6 petits gamins de 7 à 10 ans qui gardaient leurs chevres tout en ayant leur boulette de H juste au cas où ils renontraient un touriste interessé. Cette économie, pourtant interdite, est omniprésente et fait survivre une région entière, ce qui a suscité chez moi de nombreuses interrogations que j'espère pouvoir étudier avec bakapi prochainement. Malheureusement des petits malins ont volé mon nom de domaine bakapi.org ...

... sands color changed with the addition of more light. Eventually, as the heat was just becoming a bit too intense, up ahead over a dune, we saw that imaginary line where the dunes just seemed to stop, and the van parked just beyond it. We dismounted our camels for the last time, enjoyed a quick breakfast, and loaded into the van to begin our 9 hr. drive back to civilization, getting as far from the desert as possible before the sun became directly overhead.

... guide even told us that Bob was known to "bite tourists". Makes me laugh! There was one other couple with us on the trip, Rebecca and Richard from Brisbane. That are world travelers and currently on their honeymoon, they were very nice and enjoyable company. The guide cooked us a tangine dinner and we ate around a small table on the sand in the dunes and had mocroccan mint tea. I love the desert!

... into solid walls. If only our property laws allowed us to reclaim, let's say, Stanley Park-gold mine. We spent a lazy morning around our auberge waiting for our camel trek into the desert to spend a night out in the sandy expanse. Lured by a free lunch, we went to the local craftsman co-op-i.e. carpet store for tourists. The Berber carpets were beautiful and inexpensive, but we simply enjoyed our lunch of medfouna, a humungous ...

... or us in the style of these nomad people. We climbed the nearest sand dune barefoot & my comment here was that I am accustomed to working my quads, calves, & gluts in the morning, not in the afternoon after riding a camel! We took some cool photos (you'll have to wait for those because my camera was out of commission - no batteries & the spares were left at the auberge (no comments from the peanut gallery). Dinner was a feast - dish was called Kahlia ...

... the desert - Morocco's only genuine Saharan "erg" (huge drifting expanse of sand) - in the fast-retreating sun, the glow creating a beautiful golden light on the desert sand and the most magnificent long shadows. Unfortunately, Arlene and Yuri were not feeling well enough to come along; Jody, as well, decided to stay behind. Riding a camel is not that different from riding a horse, just a little slower. They plodded along, the tail of each animal tethered to the muzzle of the next ...