Le Chevalier Solitaire Merzouga

... me dance. Of course by now they had figured out my belly dancing history. I agreed ONLY if they left the light out. So I danced, knowing nobody could really see me. And it was fabulous. Improvising to my own live drumm**s, playing just for me! Absolutely one of my favourite moments. My only complaint - it is really hard to dance on a carpet on sand. <br><br>Aft** that, Abdul gave me a little drumming lesson, but I suck. My fing**s w**e too stiff.<br ...

... where the kids took a camel ride into the desert. Alistairs camel bit Neves on the bum! Visited a village nearby which had Sudanese immigrants/refugees who played us their music and we peeked in the tiny schoolhouse with kids singing - brilliant.

... kitchen and storage. That is all, nothing else. Nothing at all and they were happy living in their natural state here. A most difficult life to live. While we were there two 4WD vehicles turned up out of nowhere and people spilled out and took photos of our camels. Our guide was asleep becuase he was practising Ramadan fasting and had not taken any water at all during the day, even after walking in the desert all day. Madhouse behaviour. The children approached us ...

... one of the guys say "Is this not a good time to ask for the corkscrew? I was the owner of the only corkscrew for the group and John wanted to borrow it. What timing! Rissani is the last settlement before the dunes of the desert begin, and is the settlement of the Alaouite dynasty which has reigned for 300 years. I dozed while they visited the founder's Mausoleum and was woken by Mohammed who had bought me a big bottle of water and some dry biscuits, bless him. We drove ...

This weekend I embarked on a school organized trip (with a very high school feel...) down to the Saharan desert (right near the border with Algeria)... We stayed at ritzy hotels and rode camels in the desert and slept in tents in the desert... Nice thing though was that, due to the large group, we got some very nice discounts on accomodations...both hotels (one we stayed at and one we left our stuff there overnight while we were in the ...

... 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!

... children add on the house, so in the end it grows very large. Some are very modern and done up nicely, however this one was an original one, complete with all the dirty children and locals running around the rundown buildings. It felt like well and truly like I was back in Africa. Rashid had organised a desert tour for us that started with lunch in Rissani. First we had to be shown some carpets and antiques that we did not want to buy, before we served Morrocan ...

... or us in the style of these nomad people. We climbed the nearest sand dune barefoot &amp; my comment here was that I am accustomed to working my quads, calves, &amp; 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 &amp; the spares were left at the auberge (no comments from the peanut gallery). Dinner was a feast - dish was called Kahlia ...

... couple of card games before braving our cold beds. (I had on just about every piece of clothing in my backpack, save my bathing suit.) Shannon and Jon told a few jokes and Tim and Kristy gave us lessons in marketing. Somehow we made it through the night, though it was only Shannon who got any sleep!. The four of us had mattresses on the ground side-by-side, but Shannon tossed and turned all night, kicking both Jon and Martin and pulling the blankets off Jon and me. We also had out ...