Salam Erfoud

... en route to Essaouira, precisely so I could dump the rugs and most my belongings there and travel w/ but a small satchel here to Essaouira for my near final 3 nts.

Uh, but - sadly for you All, I neglected to toss in the USB cord for my camera so...

The bad news is - no pics of me on that camel quite yet.

Oh I have them - youbetcha. tons of great pics including yours truly resplendent w/ requisite Berber turban atop that ...

... the magic of just one night in the desert or would
prefer to immerse yourself in the desert for several days, Morocco
Sahara has the experience and the flexibility to meet your needs
perfectly, always exceeding your expectations.
There’s a special story about that here, but you’ll also discover it if you simply keep on browsing.

... drank her beer. Then we started on the second bottle which was a brand unknown to us. To be honest, it tasted dreadful but as we were merry and wine is hard to come by in these parts; we carried on drinking it anyway. They left after a couple of hours and I crashed into bed and after a short while of watching the room spin, fell into a restless sleep. Not for long though. By 2am I was sitting on the toilet with my head in the sink, both ends in action so to speak. I thought I was going to die.

... but most were desperate by this point for a way to breathe through the sand that was being kicked up. We also loaded up on water at this point, grabbed a blanket, and picked out our mode of transportation. The camels were already waiting for us, lying down, and loaded up. One by one, the 10 of us mounted the camels, they then stood up, and began the 2 hour walk into the sahara. by this time it was probably 6pmish. We arrived at the perfect time to ...

... t sure what it was. The tour operator's son explained that they were all wells (several thousand of them covering a stretch of about 60km) which were dug and used until the water ran dry. A new well was then dug next door. So this was all the wells used through time in the one vast location. It was another reminder of how tough life would be out here - and there were loads of people who lived out here. Weather conditions were oppressive, no water, no trees ...

... for Foie Gras and even the musical crimes of Plastic Bertrand. Stopping for one of many photo breaks that day (jaw dropping rifle barrel highway through the desert, pointed directly at the High Atlas) and 2 English lads come from up behind us, pullover and have a natter. As you tend to do in the middle of bloody nowhere. They are on a brand new Beemer 1200GS and a KTM Explorer, and have just ridden down from the North of England in 2 days! Just ...

... through village, then out into the fields, irrigation system is diverted rived flowing in channels around every field. If they need the water they just did a hole in the bank of the channel and flood the field for a few hours, then shore it back up. Really good in such a dry place, BUT when you are trying to walk through the fields it is hard to have to keep jumping these channels. Nearly fell in a few, had to balance on a log to get over them ...

... pretty setting! The valleys are dotted with mysterious, almost eerie-looking Kasbahs that are thousands of years old. It's incredible that they are made from nothing more than mud and straw, but because there is so little rain, they can last for a long time with only the occasional repair. Since the High Atlas region looks very much the same as it was during medieval times, a lot of movies are filmed here - if you've seen "Gladiator ...

... ve made who works in the gift shop at the hotel. He has family in Erfoud and instead of paying a guide we get to visit the dessert for free and don't have to follow some planned excursion. The drive to great, very beautiful. We stop first at a huge gorge and take in the view, got great pics that I joined together so you can see the whole scene. It was great. We drove through many small town and got to see a lot more of the real Morocco. When we got the ...

... could be shown them 'on a floor with no other rugs on it', which is actually a ploy to separate customers. Dave too was taken elsewhere to be shown another. I remained behind casually sitting on a couch telling the owner how I was travelling for a year and had little money for such extravegances, showing little interest. I saw one I liked, and said 'I like that one', thinking that the meagre amount I had to offer was never going to be close to acceptable. Minutes later I ...