Ksar Bicha Hotel Merzouga

... tarps on. I spotted a few people here and there working the land - by hand. Men were in the fields planting acres of land with hoes and shovels. I saw one man tilling his field with a donkey pulling an old-fashioned plow. I didn't see many women, just a few here and there walking along the road. Also saw some kids (boys) riding mules hauling materials. There were shepherds in the hills, either standing or sitting ...

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!

... dunes with nothing else in sight except more sand dunes was incredible. Neither one of us flipped over, but both needed the guide's assistance at certain points...we finished around sunset and headed back to the hotel. Later that night/early morning, we got up around 4:45am and made a short hike to the dunes to see the sunrise. Definitely pretty sweet, although we were constantly on the lookout for scorpions....luckily we only saw some tracks

... kefta (meatballs made from seasoned minced lamb), and my favorite, pastilla, which is chicken,almonds, spices and creamy lemon-flavored eggs layered in this amazing sweet cinnamon pastry. It's like dinner and dessert all at the same time! We went to a small village in the mountains outside of Fes in search of rugs. Azrou is where a lot of the berber rugs come from and this is where Josh and I found and ...

... look like baked mud, but on close inspection they are simply folds of rock pushed out of the desert sands. Its a dry world: your eyes get dry, the patches of green are few and in places simply breathing was sufficient proof that a fan forced oven was more efficient at cooking from the inside out than a conventional oven. Oddly enough, it snows here in winter. Amid this brutal landscape is dotted the local population in uniform mud brick cubed homes ...

... SHE SAID: Adam pretty much summed it up for me. Want to add that the camels are so interesting, each with their own personality. Adam's camel was "bob Marley" and he had a definite attitude. When we would stop the camel would roll to its side and kick it's legs, also trying to dismount him was tough he would drop down to his knees very abruptly, I thought adam was going to fall off ...

... KM START = 13,480 (Trip = 3,310 ) KM END = 13,992 (Trip =3,822 ) Route: Fes > Sefrou > Boulemane > Midelt > Ar-Rachida > Erfoud > Erg Chebbi The snow capped Atlas come into view today, but not before riding through pleasant old colonial gardened towns such as Sefrou. We stop for breakfast and reflect how it is that the French managed to pass on the art of making coffee so well to the natives, but seemingly left their own training manuals at ...

... 30 seconds the air was black with sand and we couldn;t see a foot in front of us, or hear each other. we couldn;t see the hotel, but headed in that direction when we saw lights. it was the 4X4 from the hotel coming out to look for us. we were very glad to get back under cover and to watch the sandstorm rage from the safety of our room. the next day we went camel trekking. we set off at 10.30 on two camels and a berber guide who walked in front. camels are not ...

From the town of Tetouan just south of Ceuta, we caught a local bus for Fez, a mostly picturesque 5-½ hour ride. We were the only non-Moroccans throughout the whole trip. The imperial city of Fez (two others are Marrakech and Meknes). The Fez medina, where we chose to stay is like being at another place at another time. We hired a guide for a 1/2 day and were taken to places in the depths of the medina where no foreigners were seen. We visited tanneries, mosques ...