Hamza, our guide, and Abdurahim, our driver, picked us up Friday to begin the 10 hour journey to the Sahara. On the way we made some stops and I witnessed and experienced some truly amazing things...before even getting to the Sahara Desert. One of our first stops was to look at the Atlas Mountains. They were beautiful...stunning, but I couldn't help but think that those Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia are more breath-taking when October rolls around. Anywho, seeing the Atlas Mountains was still pretty awesome. And there was a wonderful breeze...
After breathing in the mountain air we pulled over and, I kid you not, fed wild monkeys.
This was amazing. They walked straight up to us and reached their hand out to receive the bread Hamza brought for us to feed them. There were several wild dogs that, I'll be honest, made many of us a little nervous. But they stood around quietly and watched. This was definitely a "WOW" moment. It's very different from the zoo. I'm just saying...
(I'll post a video later of Kim feeding one)
We only drove for 5 hours Friday and stopped in Zaida, a small town, where we stayed in a hotel and were fed dinner & breakfast. The four girls shared a room, me, Kim, Erin, and Alex, and Monty got a room all to himself.
We got back on the road the next morning by 9 and continued to the drive. So, I already feel like I'm not doing this trip justice. The change in terrain over the whole 10 hours was pretty amazing. We went from the mountains, to plains, to rocky flat plains, to desert. It was neat to see so much of Morocco. I took 3 rolls of film and 300 digital images. So the images I post are just highlights and not nearly all of it. Periodically we drove through little towns that were more what I imagined when I thought of Morocco before arriving in Rabat. Little boys wandering the streets, donkeys hauling crops, dirt roads/paths to the sides, brightly colored shops, etc. These pictures I will save for later. Everything had so much beauty in it. I can't even begin to explain. Several times I found myself crying while looking at the window, thinking am I really seeing all of this? Is the world truly this beautiful?
Moving on...
I should tell you, one anecdote, our first night eating dinner in the hotel I was asking Abdulrahim if he would be riding with us on the camels in the desert. Naturally, I made some hand motions as I talked since I can't not talk with my hands....and he said "What is that? Are you driving a camel?" And from that point on I became known as the camel driver. He was cracking jokes on me the whole weekend.
Anyways...this was a chance find. Abdulrahim pulled over when he and Hamza saw this so we could jump out and take pictures.
After a little more driving we stopped at a Kasbah in a small town, I don't know where. This Kasbah was not decorated/painted like the blue and white one in Rabat. A man met us outside and greeted Hamza and led us into the small winding streets. He and Hamza seemed to be old friends as they walked hand in hand through the dark alleys. He said this Kasbah was over 500 years old...AMAZING! After walking for 10 minutes he opened a door and ushered us inside. He invited us into his home. This was one of the coolest parts of the trip. I didn't take pictures out of respect for his home but the entry room was large with the mud-brick walls and beautiful blue and yellow tiled floors. The next room had couches lining the wall. We removed our shoes and stepped in and sat down. He brought in tea and cookies for us to share. The people of this culture seem so open and welcoming...even to us Americans. We met the owners daughter, Aminu, who was probably just 1 year old and adorable. After tea, he walked us back to our car and on we drove. Below is a picture of the street outside the man's home that we entered:
So, we entered the final stretch of the trip. As we approached the desert, in the town of Merzouga, the dunes rose up on the horizon like orange mountains. It was spectacular. Unreal. We reached our destination, a hotel in the desert, where we had some tea while our camels were prepared. We were each given a turban and Hamza wrapped them around our heads. We said goodbye to Abdou our driver and climbed onboard our camels. Now let me just say that riding a camel is not as glamorous as one may think...aka it's cool for about 2 minutes. If camels were humans they'd be those gross men with beer bellies who grunt, burp, and fart while laying around all day in front of the TV scratching their butt. Their bellies swung from side to side as we marched along and their rear ends produced the loudest, funniest noises I've ever heard. The camel in front of you would be passing gas while using the restroom while the camel behind you is sneezing on your foot. Like I said, not too glamorous. But AWESOME anyways. After about 15 minutes the hurt kicks in. Camels aren't exactly high class comfort. Not only are you swatting flies the whole time you're holding on for dear life (which by the way I did the whole time. I think I got the gimp camel because he kept tripping and I was terrified he was going to face plant whenever we went down hills. They literally would trot down the hills and practically run into eachother) but your legs and butt start to feel a little pain. When I got off the camel I literally felt like I had been trying to crush a cinderblock between my thighs for the past hour and a half.
But we made it safe and sound and we arrived at the camp just before sunset. We had more Moroccan tea (which is green tea and mint by the way) and climbed the dunes to watch the sun go down.
After dinner, Berber musicians (Berber is group of Moroccan people, there are various tribes throughout the country still today, they prefer the name Amazigh) came and played music for us. This was truly awesome. The stars were unbelievably bright in the expansive sky.
Two frighteningly large spiders came after me during this but Hamza saved me and I tried my best to enjoy the music (bugs are SO not my thing). After about 30 minutes of beautiful Saharian music, we pulled our mattresses out of the tents to sleep under the stars. (I made sure to tuck my sheet in around my body and wrap my head in the turban so only my eyes were exposed to the bugs. I basically mummified myself.) Then I stared at the stars as I tried to fall asleep. As you may imagine, what with the paranoia and all, I didn't get much sleep, but I saw 2 shooting stars and saw no more bugs. We got up at 5:30 and rode back out of the desert as the sun rose.
This entire experience was unreal. It was spiritually moving and emotionally effecting and I have never felt closer to "Mother Earth". I will never forget this amazing trip and am so thankful that I had wonderful people here to share it with. More pictures and videos will come soon. And probably more details. I'm still slightly awestruck that this entire thing is even happening.
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