Palms Hotel Erfoud

First of all, let's get the bad news over with right off the bat. As I said,it's now nearly a week since the desert, and I've meanwhile done a lot of moving around. Suffice I'll get to the magic of riding a camel into the sunset in the Saraha in a moment, but meanwhile I traveled to Quazazate, Marrakech, and now Essaouira. After lugging around those luscious Moroccan rugs a few days, I made the brilliant decision to stop in Marrakech for a ...

... We had a really nice buffet style meal in the hotel and decided to venture to the shops outside the hotel to try to find a carpet shop that we had been told about. Layla, an Aussie living in Paris, had failed to buy a carpet in Fes despite making the poor carpet seller drag out every carpet in his shop, only for her to dismiss them, so was keen to visit this shop. Deja vue as we watched her sit there for over an hour while the desperate carpet man vainly tried to clinch a sale. Our ...

... or that we were stepping into another planet or universe. Its exactly as you see it in the movies. Ahead, a building started to appear out of nowhere. This was to be where we left the van and traded it for camels. We piled out of the van after we parked, went through our packs, pulling out only necessities for our 1 night of camping, and the rest was left behind. Those who didn't buy scarves had this one last opportunity to purchase one at twice the ...

... avoiding eye contact with anyone else (after all we were in this guy's home) and trying to determine the best opportunity to leave. In the end, he managed to sell 2 carpets (despite himself) to one of the US guys who was ecstatic with his purchases of a combined EUR250 as he said in the US they would have cost closer to US$1,000 each. As we drove closer to the Sahara we stumbled along a confusing terrain of craterous moonscape. It looked man-made but we ...

... 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 ...

Woke up early to try to get photo's of the hills around Kasbah - light wasn't quite right. Morning was supposed to be a 2 hour walk through a couple of villages and valleys - turned in to 41/2 hours. Local guide didn't speak much English so gave no explanation of what we were seeing. Girls needed the toilet so ended up asking a local house to use the facilities - NO light in the toilet, squat style, was afraid I was going to fall in, had to borrow a torch ...

... the hard day driving. About an hour later we arrived in Erfoud, a town about two hours away from the desert. We had not booked any accommodation, so Rashid drove us to a hotel, and Megan and I got out to run inside and check the price, but Rashid jumped in front of us, and negotiated the price for us. It was a beautiful hotel, with huge rooms and swimming pool. We also had a delicious four course dinner included, which we invited Rashid to join us for.

... get some fresh air from the mountains and feel the sand between our toes in the desert. Our 4-day excursion took us through the High Atlas Mountains. Driving through the mountains was definitely an adventure, with an endless series of twists and turns up and down the side of the mountains. As we looked across the countryside, we saw lush green river valleys surrounded by arid desert plains and snow-capped mountains in the distance...a ...

... Hassan asks if we would like to see one of the shops. We thought we were being taken to a shop owned by his mother that sells the hooded coat that the local men where in winter, which makes them look like a mixture of a character from 'Star Wars', the Grim Reaper from Monty Python's 'Meaning of Life', and the Gobbledock from the old Smiths Chips commercials. Instead it was a carpet shop. Mike and Linda were very interested in a couple and were thus taken to another room so ...

... The sun looks so much closer to you than it does at home. And the way it lights up the huge dunes and makes them look like they are glowing is incredible. Definitely something I will never forget. After packing up and drinking more tea, we forced ourselves to get back on the camels. All I can say about that is that I was actually considering getting off and walking the two hours through the broiling sun because it hurt so bad. But I am also ...