Morocco part 2

Our tour is a three day and two night excursion. Our tour group has maybe 20-25 people in it, however we are in a small van with five other people the rest of the group is in a bus-type van. Our driver is named Arasheed and Steve and I pile in the front seat with him. There are three Chileans and two Americans who are on Easter break from University in England- they are pretty hilarious and we are lucky to have shared the tour with them! Day one we drive into the High Atlas Mountain range. We don’t know which peak it is, but we know that one of them is Africa’s second highest (next to Kilimanjaro)- the mountains are fantastic but the ‘highway’ is a little out of shape! Narrow roads, hairpin turns, pot holes and no shoulder. We drive through small mountain villages- people are riding donkeys and hauling water out of wells with buckets. Women are washing laundry in the rivers.  There appears to be a lot of siesta- ing by groups o fmen in berber attire. As we are driving out of one village, I see a fluffy white and orange cat pouncing its way along the road, then it happens. Arasheed doesn’t see it and the cat hops out in front of the van- THUNK THUNK!! I do my half scream half gasp noise and wake up our snoozing tour companions who think we are driving off a cliff. Arasheed swerves to the side of the road and stops. He is looking in the riewview, I have tears in my eyes and I don’t turn around- which is a good thing, the Chileans tell me later the cat was trying to get up and then a truck ran it over again. Ugh. We continue on with the drive, from that moment on Steve and I point out animals lingering by the roadside...Arasheed laughs. Apart from dogs, cats, sheep, goats, donkeys and camels, we don’t really see any other wildlife. Not that I’m expecting to...

We get to Ait Benhaddou. We have 35mins to spend at the famous site. Arasheed says to walk to the river and we will find it. So we head down a village road lined with souvenir junk...we get to the river and there it is- across the bridge-less river! The river is wide and shallow but there are men there with donkeys to haul people to the other side. The braver people take their shoes off and walk across. Steve and I observe for a few minutes and realize that if you cross, there is nothing to do on the other side- people go up to the gates and slowly turn back and recross the river. We decide that seeing Ait Benhaddou thirty feet closer is not going to be a big deal and we hang out and enjoy it- and stay dry. Meanwhile the Chileans cross...one hobbles back to the van with a good size splinter in his foot at a 90 degree angle. Arasheed is not only the tour driver, he is the tour doctor and digs the splinter out while the rest of us take in the views of “morocco hollywood”. Yes, we are overlooking the sets where over 200 films involving deserts have been shot- including “Gladiator” and “Lawrence of Arabia”. The day ends in Dades Gorge where we stay in a hotel. The gorge is incredibly windy making the hotel rooms cold. There are no lights in the hallways and stairwells- they are lit by candles- I love it! I think of Faddah Oliver who would be running around blowing out the “fire hazards”.

We head to the dining room for dinner- it is a lounge type place with low couches full of cushions and lanterns lighting the room. We are eating our delicious moroccan soup and it happens. While the 7 of us are in mid conversation, out of the corner of my eye I see this HUGE Green spider crawling beside my arm on the table- AHH! I do my half scream half gasp and jump from my seat. Coco, beside me jumps at my gasp (Steve hasn’t moved an inch - he has spent 10 years with me and is desensitized to my yell/gasp)...our entire table goes into panic mode- the Americans don’t know what is going on. The entire dining room has turned to watch the drama at our table...Coco (who I think was more frightened than moi) hesitates and then lifts his foot to the table and steps on the beast. Everyone gasps...the spider is still alive and someone puts a glass over it. We call over the waiter and he takes the spider away, however there were some guts left on the table. Coco couldn’t stand it and folded the table cloth over the spot. I was on edge for the rest of the meal. Moments like these reaffirm my devout commitment to nightly ‘bug checks’ before bed. 

We sleep well and wake up early to shower. No towels. We didn’t want to use our travel towels and pack them wet, so on advice from our travel companions we used the pillow cases and bed sheets. The pillow case worked for me but steve is so hairy he had to roll in the bed after soaking his pillow case! Hahaha!

We keep driving and keep stopping for picturesque photo opportunities. The landscape is beautiful and diverse. We come to stop in a village where Arasheed tells us we are going to see a Berber family. A man meets us at the side of the road and leads us in to a lush green field. We are immediately bombarded by kids trying to sell us animals weaved out of grass and begging for money, pens, candy...anything you were willing to give they were willing to take. I had nothing to give and was getting rather annoyed with them. We were trying to keep up with our Berber guide on a path that was narrow and muddy. The guide finally shooed them away but they seemed to pop out of nowhere the entire time. This Berber family lives in the valley for six months- farming and weaving. In the summer they move with their livestock to the mountains where it is cooler. The fields are irrigated by trenches and the land is worked completely by hand and donkeys. We enter a casbah and are taken to the Berbers house. His sister is weaving carpets and we join her in a large room. The walls are covered by carpets she has made- we watch her and I develop a new appreciation for the amount of labour that goes into each carpet! Saying this, this style of carpet is not for me and I would not have a place in my house for one- ever. We are served Moroccan tea and chat with our host. Then the Berber guide starts to bring dozens of carpets in to the room, I didn’t get it at first, but it was the beginning of an extended sales pitch. No one was going to buy a carpet and we cast “how do we get the heck outta here” glances at each other every time he went to fetch more. It was awkward. The Berber tried different sales tactics, my favorite would have to be the guilt laden phrase “if you can find the room in your heart, you can find the room in your budget.” We politely tipped him and thanked him for sharing with us, we were promptly lead out of the casbah. 

We continue driving and the land becomes incredibly barren, hard, and dry. We drive past dozens of shops selling fossils- I even spot a vanity counter top with fossils in it. Apparently this part of the world was once an ocean. We turn off the highway and in a few minutes we catch our first glimpse of Erg Chebbi- the sand dunes! Arasheed chooses to drive off road because the dirt road is too bumpy...so we are cruising over the Sahara with the red hot chili peppers blaring (via an i-pod plugged into the tape deck). I have a huge smile on and Steve and I keep giving each other the “can you believe this?” look.

It is the late afternoon and the sand dunes are a warm orange color. Our camels await us. We pack an overnight bag and are given a blanket. The camel guide leads us to our camels, the camels smell and their fur looks matted and dirty. They are huge animals. There is no saddle, instead there is a blanket tied around the hump like a donut. The blankets we are to sleep with are laid over the hump. There is a handle made of rebar and the camels are tied together in a mouth to behind pattern. Steve gets on first- the camel is laying down, steve sits on the hump, and the guide pulls on the rope to the camels mouth. The camel is not graceful and it takes large sudden movements to get into a standing position. Steve is all shits n’ giggles- he is wearing a traditional Moroccan camel riding scarf and looks authentic yet hilarious. Its my turn. I’m nervous. I get on the hump and hold on tight- he swoops up- this is when I realize how massive they are! I am so high off the ground! No stirrups on camels...thankfully this is not a mountain climb day on one of Larry’s horses!

We are all on board and we head out into the dunes. Its awesome. There is nothing but sand and the occasional desert plant. We ride for an hour and a half. During this time Steve is complaining that the camel hump is sharp, but I think he is over exaggerating and being a wimp. We arrive at our camp which consists of five tents made out of berber carpets. We take our blankets off the camels and pick a tent which has enough mats and pillows for the seven of us. I am immediately thankful for bringing my headlamp out there (more sound advice from B’ner) and am one of the only ones with a light in the desert. The sun sets fast and the rest of the tour group finally arrives. We sit around tables chatting and drinking tea. Our hosts play music on drums and we are starving. Dinner is finally served- Tajine and bread! Surprise! It is a communal meal with no plates- only forks. I scarf down three tajine sandwiches. For dessert we have oranges- typically moroccan :) We visit a little longer and admire the desert night sky, soon after we head to the tent. My bug check obsession pays off when Steve and I shake nine half dead moths out of his blanket! Ewww! I tie my scarf around my head super tight so no bugs can get in my ears or in my hair. We cuddle up and sleep surprisingly well!

The next morning we missed the sunrise but we didn’t care- I think the color of the dunes were more vibrant in the evening anyway! We were back on the camels, except this time I was on Steve's camel with the sharp hump. Steve was not being a wimp, this camel had a boney hump and was extremely uncomfortable. I wanted to jump off and walk. It didn’t matter how I shifted my weight, it hurt. We finally de-cameled and went for breakfast. Tea served with Bread and marmalade- again. Moroccan specialty! We loved the Sahara experience! 

The last day of the tour was allocated to drive back to Marrakech. We didn’t want to go back that way, so Arasheed dropped us off at the bus station in Rissani. We said goodbye to our tour companions (they were going back to Marrakech and then on to Casablanca) and thanked Arasheed for the fun time. We boarded the bus bound for Fes!