Kasbah Hotel Xaluca Maadid Erfoud

... until the following day so as to make sure I was feeling good whence experiencing my Sahara dream.

Meanwhile, I did manage to briefly jump on a 4x4 behind a bonafide Beber lad resplendent in blue flowing robes and turban - and whiz up and down the Sahara dunes for an hour - to... yup, go after a geocache of course! (note to my fellow geozanies who are reading this - grossi/mcrt: the Erg Chebbi earth cache - dang but we got w/in 250 ft ...

... eventually arriving at camel camp after about 2 hrs. Jo and I immediately set off up the big dune behind camp to watch the sun set. It was bloody tough work - every step you took you sunk into he sand and made a half step backwards - we made it to the top and walked along the edge of the dune - sitting down when we felt like our lungs were bleeding! Sunset wasn't too bad but the sense of achievement for ...

... frost in the hollows and the air was chilled. An hour later we arrived at Ifrane, the Alpine village, 1655 metres above sea level. Moroccans ski in the surrounding mountains. The houses were built by the French in their style and it felt like being in Switzerland or France. Very bizarre. Good for winter sports but not much else. We had an hour to wander around in the chilly sunshine. Wasn't much to look at, a couple of trendy shops and cafes, I bought some jewellery and a CD which was ...

... two that the air conditioning on the bus worked perfectly well: "my boss doesn't like me to use the AC. Too expensive for him" . We visited kasbahs - the baked mud and straw villages littered across the Sahara. They are usually a series of interconnected homes housing about 90 families with large open areas as the source for natural light. These places are hot. People seemed to sit around inside to avoid the sun and would venture outside only after we had been ...

... The Moroccan guy showed us some water well type of thing. Then suddenly he became very upset and wouldn't talk. Because most of the conversations were in French between Jeremy and the Moroccan, Matt and I were pretty confused and startled by the whole scene. However, we trusted Jeremy's instinct, and got back in the car. All of a sudden, the Moroccan drove our car straight into a sand dune. Being extremely upset, the boys start ...

... bonkers. Surprise surprise we get hopelessly lost, but thats all part of the fun. For the odd dinar, some of the local kids will take you back to where you thought you were meant to be going. Pay as you go GPS, in retro style. Dinner at the Bab Bou Jeloud gate. Delicious couscous and tagine again... after 2 weeks dare to say we will probably be cursing the stuff, but its great now and coupled with a goods night sleep even better. May 10th REST DAY FES A day ...

After another tasty breakfast of bread, egg and jam, we packed up our bags and checked out of our hotel. As we were traveling with Megan's parents, I had booked a car and driver for the next leg of our trip to the Sahara desert. After our unpleasant experience the previous day, I was suddenly apprehensive about what I booked, and hoped that everything we had agreed to would stand. Our driver, Rashid, arrived spot on time, in a clean new Hyundai 8 seater ...

... Ben here... I just donkies and chickings for ***** and giggles and to alevate the exterme bordom)It was pretty boring really and I would have been so mad if I had have paid more. The camels were allowed to wander and we watched more sand get blown into everything. When it got cooler we ventured out and saw a couple of other guys who'd been taken to the same place as us in the beginning. We went to their Berber family house, but the guides told us they weren't there even though we'd seen ...

... little oasis: palmerie fed by a trickle of spring water, fossils for sale and a local musical group. Gnaou musicians are descended from the west africans brought as slaves to Morocco along the Arab slave routes. Gnaou music is fantastic - chanting, drumming and of course, we all have to get up to dance. As we wriggle out the door, CDs for 'Les Pigeons de Sable' are a Number One hit. The local school kids are waiting for us ... all 5 of them. Not a good showing for class ...

... craziest bus ride of my life. (The craziest being the bus full of angry Romanian prostitutes who were being deported from Turkey via bus when Yarrow and I were there a couple years ago.) We arrived in Er-Rachidia pretty late, and took the first hotel we looked at, just to be inside somewhere safe and away from the hustlers. The hotel was a disaster- Lisay's bed didn't have a bottom sheet, the sink didn't drain, and the toilet was of the "squat ...