Hotel Reda Zagora

... avec les mecanos mais c est bon on en a un bon sur marrakech maintenant. En attendant de recuperer notre quatrequart nous avons fait faire une tente pour se mettre a l ombre un super travail et une bonne affaire, le troc ici marche super bien. Le vendredi soir avant de repartir nous avons vu Sekou qui etait venu pour une representation de theatre avec son ecole. et samedi retour a marrakech.

... desert. Just to let you know, camels make the most god awful noise when they dont want to stand up. Imagine waterboarding chewbaca. Someone said its just like riding a big dog. I dont know about you but does that sound easy? We stopped to watch an amazing sunset then continued on our way. At the end of the camel trek into the desert we came upon some Berber nomad tents set up for us. There we made camp and had ...

... Upon seeing the camels again, the pain in my legs from last nights excursion returned... oh joy! But at least it was light this time, so we could predict the ups and downs of the camels, and see where we were going. It took maybe an hour by camel to reach Younis, parked at the end ...

... it might be said! Unlucky dear... but I took some photos from the top for you! My view on the left, Mum's on the right: And I ran down all the steps on the way down just to rub salt in the wounds! The joy of climbing things is a wonderful thing - not even persistant locals trying to ...

... a natural but I just couldnt keep a straight face for the life of me. Intent on climbing the largest dune (over 300m high) before sunset we headed off across the dunes. Along the way we couldnt help but notice the resemblance between the smaller dunes and big open wave faces. Naturally we began dune surfing which is much more fun than it looks. We pushed up the steep dunes until we reached the top. Looking around us to one side extended the beautiful dunes all ...

... verdant. It was Saturday and seemed to be laundry day in every community through which we passed. Women were in the shallow river beds and the trees and shrubs along the riverbanks were strewn in a riot of colours. We stopped for lunch at a rather plush location. The food was very good. We ...

... the money. Our guide was an old guy with one front tooth. He was a real ham, maybe a bit too much and he toned it down a bit by the end. Near the top of the hill, I started to get stomach cramps pretty bad, probably from my "Berber Omelet" that morning. I told "Abdul" I needed a Berber toilet, stat. He led me down a trail and then took me into alleys and walkways and former homes that were missing roofs. He pointed to a corner and said "there". Good ...

... horizon and the Erg Chebbi was before us. Our driver left the narrow ribbon of asphalt and headed right out over the sand...4 wheeling through the desert. We passed new hotels competing for the tourists coming to see the genuine Saharan sand dunes...and finally arrived in Merzouga (a tiny town that just recently was devastated by a flash flood) Families were staying in government provided tents as their homes and businesses had been washed away by the torrential ...

... unsure if it was a planned part of the trip or not, we all ended up upstairs where a lady was making carpets and after mint tea, out came the homeowners selection of carpets for us to see... hmmmm. It didn't help when two of the Aussies, Barry and Louise took shots at stirring each other by saying "I think you like that one Barry"... causing more carpets to come out. Still, it was fun, but we were trying to remain polite to suggest that we weren't interested so we could go and see the ...

... of course. But that comes later. Muhamid, the driver of our 4 wheel, is the Evil Knievel of Berbers. He is designated to bring up the rear of our 4 wheel caravan, and without anyone behind him to check us, he is determined to give his tourists the best ride in the desert. The first 3 cars drive sedately in tandem. Muhamid takes on Extreme Wheelies, Sahara Style. Up dunes and down dunes, swinging wildly for no obvious reason, he ...