Morocco: Sahara pictures and diary

January 17, 2005

We wake up around 5 a.m., pack our bags and go down to the reception to wait for our ride. In the meantime Mehdi shows up too, so we chat a bit. He is a true example of the Maroccan’s good sense of humor. Our car shows up a bit later: we are a bit surprised that there are already 5 people in the car… How will we fit? Well, minutes later we see that it is possible to fit and (nota bene) it is possible to survive even for 6 hours! Now we really know what does it mean to take a ride in a “grand taxi” :-) Because of a girl who doesn’t take the ride so well, we have to stop 2-3 times, but we are just happy to stretch our legs a bit and take some pictures.

Around 2 a.m. we arrive to Rissani and leave our bags in a shop and go for a walk, but there is not much to see here. When we go back to the shop our driver is still not there, so we have a mint tea with the owner of the shop and we almost buy some jewelry :-) It is quite hard to resist if you start the bargaining game: rarely there is way out!

Eventually our driver shows up and after a 30 minutes ride we arrive to Auberge Lahmada. We can see sand everywhere and the dunes are just 300 meters away. But instead of showing us our accommodation, the owner of the auberge wants to trick us to take a camel ride. We tell him no way, it is too expensive. Let’s just say that we weren’t his favorite clients for the rest of our stay. We decide to stay in tents, probably we won’t have many opportunities to stay in berber tent. The most surprising thing is that in all Morocco you have to pay for each shower, but here on the edge of Sahara the shower is for free!! After a shower and a café au lait we head to the desert. It is amazing to walk, roll down or just lie in the sand. We walk almost for two hours and in the meantime it gets dark. Let’s just say that walking in the dunes in the moonlight can create strange sensations, including orientation problems. But sooner or later we make it back. At night we sleep like babies.

January 18, 2005

We wake up around 9 in the morning and we have breakfast on the roof on the roof of the auberge. Just as usually, we make our own breakfast: we still have fresh vegetables and a lot of bread. After breakfast we drink 4 cafe au lait, so it is a perfect morning!

Around 10 we leave the auberge and we had for the dunes. It is really hard to describe what we see... we hope that the pictures will be able to give back a bit of the beauty that we see here. Warm yellow world, so quiet and so beautiful. Simply no words... Just like in Bertolucci's "Sheltering sky", which by the way, was shot here. We climb the highest dunes and simply the view is amazing. Climbing on the dunes it is very similar to climbing in snow, maybe even a bit more difficult and exhausting. We are in the dunes for six hours and we reach the auberge after 5 in the afternoon. Both of us are phisically good condition, but after several hours in the dunes we are terribly tired. After we get back we cook our food: cous-cous with fish and fresh salad. Later shower and of course again cafe au lait :-) In the evening we go for another short walk and later just sit around and play dices which attracts most of the local guys.

January 19, 2005

On the second morning in the dunes we start again with cafe au lait and later go for another walk in the desert. Before we leave we meet a nice American couple, Barbara and Todd. They are doing a trip around the world and we don't know it yet, but we will travel with them for a couple of days.

Our walk in the dunes is the same great as the day before, though we make it a bit shorter. In the evening we rest a bit, drink cafe au lait and play dices. It is our last night in the dunes, which makes us a bit sad.