Morocco Global Adventures
Our big adventure into the desert began with a pickup from Argana Café on the main square. Our backpacks are getting used as per the plan – leave our main luggage at the Riad and just take what we need for the two-night trip. It’s lovely to be sharing this experience with Jason and Louisa. When the black mini van finally arrived and we boarded, we were delighted that it was much more comfortable than the gnome bus of a couple of days ago into the high Atlas. There is a lot of travelling to get to the desert, so good airconditioning and a bit of space is appreciated.
Our guide/driver, Said, speaks English as do our travel companions, who are from Sweden. Mohammed, dad, is Moroccan but married his Swedish wife (Elisabet) and they have been living in Sweden for eight years. We set off and enjoyed the passing scenery as we began to ascend into the mountains. Our trip is going to take us through Dades Gorge and past Ait Ben Haddou, overnight in the Valley of Roses and then on to the Merzouga Desert, and the famous dunes of Erg Chebbi.
Our first rest stop also provided excellent photo opportunities and we discovered that we are part of a much larger group. The Gnome bus is full of Spanish speaking tourists; we feel blessed that we have our roomy mini van. Sometimes only speaking English can be a blessing. We took the chance to enjoy the break, stretch our legs and get to know our travel companions.
Our next stop was for lunch before we were invited to take an indeterminate walk to Ben Haddou. With the temperatures well into the low to mid 40s and the middle of the day, looking over to the hilly historic site, the dry, dusty street, blazing sun and soul-sapping heat was daunting. Assured by our guide that it wasn’t far we set off, winding through the streets towards the riverbed we needed to cross to enter the 1100-year-old village. We were this close to a site that has been featured in numerous Hollywood block-busters – were we really going to turn our backs?
Colin and I hauled our desiccating bodies across the rocky riverbed determined to ascend the mighty heights of Ben Haddou. It is a historic ighrem or ksar along the former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakesh in Morocco and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987. As we entered the lower streets, we lost brave souls to the scorching heat as they turned around to find somewhere cool to spend the hour or so we had to explore. A few families still live within the walls and the usual wares are hawked by hardy shop owners. We watched a demonstration of the painting style used by the local artisans whereby tea is painted onto paper and several dyes are used to create images. The painting is then heated to reveal the colours and artwork. I would have loved to buy one, but transporting it would be difficult, even a small one.
We crossed back over the river and our guide dropped us off at one of the stores near our pickup point. I suffered brain freeze from my ice-cream as I scoffed it in an effort to cool down and hopefully preserve one or two brain cells to remind myself in future to stay out of the heat in the middle of the day. This was our major stop for the day, and it was a true joy to get into our minivan and continue our drive through Ouarzazate to the Valley of Roses. On the way we saw the blinding light of the Ouarzazate Solar Power station, the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world, generating 510 MW of power.
Ouarzazate looks like a nice city, but our hotel was about half an hour drive and not close to much. Hotel Ksar Kaissar offers a pool, a bottle shop (!) and some of the quirkiest additions to a hotel you can think of. There are a number of terraces to enjoy the sunset and valley; a discotheque; children’s playground; a theme park(?) with statues of wild animals. The step back in time to an era when this hotel may have been quite spectacular lays a whisper of sadness over the whole scene, but there are certainly signs of how beautiful this would have been in its day. Dinner was served buffet style on one of the terraces and we shared tagines, salads, breads (of course), vegetables and fruit, chatting with our new Swedish friends and waiting for the stars to shine.
After a traditional Moroccan breakfast – the idea of breaking bread in this country is taken very seriously – we boarded our van to head to the Dades Gorge. The scenery in this green haven is just spectacular and the lush valleys overlooked by towering red cliffs are refreshing and beautiful. Our first stop took us into an Oasis where our guide took us through the fields of fruits and vegetables, herbs and nuts, explaining that the agriculture does not use chemicals or pesticides. Small patches of different crops are framed by irrigation channels fed from the streams running through the valley.
We were taken to one of the Berber carpet makers and shown a huge range of carpets; the life might be simple in this valley, but they can pack your new floor covering and ship it anywhere in the world. I thought the prices were surprisingly good – a carpet that takes a couple of months to make retails for 90 Euros. It would probably cost that much to ship it to Australia.
We had more photo opportunities of the Gorge, watching the hundreds of holidaymakers enjoy the very cool waters, children laughing and splashing in the shallow river. It looked so good, but without swimmers, stripping down to our undies and joining them probably would have landed us in jail.
The afternoon drive took us out of the mountains and onto sweeping plains of parched and rocky land; how do people manage to live out here? The landscape is reminiscent of outback Australia…but gradually, the landscape became sandy, and we began to capture tantalising glimpse of the red dunes of the Merzouga desert.
The sun was still shining brightly when we arrived at our camel caravan and with excited trepidation, we were guided to our desert horses. With no ledge to climb onto the back of our trusty steads, we had to mount our camels while they were on the ground and hold on as they rose to their feet. And just like that, we were off on our 45-minute camel trek across the glorious dunes of Erg Chebbi.
Arrival at our Berber camp provided welcome relief from the harder than expected ‘saddle’. Oh, and there are potholes in the dunes – there are bits of my body that may never be the same again. The camp was very clean and well laid out. We were welcomed with mint tea and snacks before being shown to our tents. Without airconditioning and no windows, to say they were hot is an understatement, but our tent had a proper double bed and a single bed, with plenty of room inside. The shared toilets and showers looked clean and were a welcome sight.
We collected our bags, which had been transported by four-wheel drives and enjoyed wandering over the dunes while we waited for dinner. I’m very surprised at how cool the sand is. I thought our camel guide must have had feet made of steel to walk on the sand in just flip flops, but the sand doesn’t get hot at all. Apparently, it’s a thing to get buried in the sand – our breezy camel ride had me covered in enough sand, and there is no way I would want to risk finding critters under the sand. Instead, we enjoyed sitting on the sand absorbing the glorious ambiance as the sun set over the dunes and watching others from our group sandboarding.
We shared our dinner table with our new friends and enjoyed a feast of tagines, salads and breads, followed by fruit for dessert. There has certainly been a lot of food on this trip – we were unable to finish everything put before us. Our trip is considered a standard level, no luxury, but it was definitely comfortable, and we all felt well looked after. After our ablutions, we were all invited to sit around the fire for a drum and song circle which I think the guides and camp staff enjoyed the most of anyone.
Getting to sleep was a challenge in the heat, although a wetted t-shirt draped over my chest helped. Thankfully the desert night cooled enough that we were able to get quite a few hours’ sleep before our 5am alarm so that we could be on board our ships of the desert to catch the sunrise as we retraced our steps back to the edge of the dunes.
Jason and his camel were roped behind mine, and whenever we stopped for photos, Jason’s camel would walk into mine and nuzzle my behind. Thinking he just liked me and wanted patting, I was doing just that when the twerp snotted on my pants and nipped my arm, drawing blood. I let out a girly squeal and got my arm away from his grotty teeth before he had another go. I hoped that washing it with water would prevent anything nasty developing. For the record, our guide said that he had never heard of anyone getting bitten – lucky me.
We had travelled a long way to get to the dunes, so it was a long drive to get back to Marrakech. This was a bucket-list trip and well worth the long drive and the camel nip. Morocco Global Adventures do a great job and for an awesome price. We got our transport, two nights accommodation, two dinners, two breakfasts and the camel trek for $166 each – astounding value for an astounding memory.
The shower back at the Riad? Heavenly.