Our good friends Mike and Ahava visited Morocco some time ago, and, as we have done for previous vacations, we followed their sage advice in planning our trip. In particular, they recommended hiring a guide and driver, doing so from Rough Tours, and making sure to visit the Sahara. Right on all counts. We got so much more out of the trip than we would have if we had just rented a car and done it ourselves. Also, we were very happy with Rough Tours, both in the planning stages with Youssef and with our guide Mohamed and our driver Ibrahim. They were professional, knowledgeable, and patient. Finally, the trip to the Sahara was a real highlight.
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| town where we stopped near the edge of the Sahara |
We arrived at the edge of a large area of sand dunes a bit before sunset. We hopped on waiting camels (dromedaries, actually, I guess) and rode for about an hour and a half over the dunes to a camp, watching the lengthening shadows play on the dunes and the colors of the sunset reflect off of the sand. When we arrived at the camp, mint tea was waiting for us. We drank and chatted with some of the people manning the camp as well as a couple from Germany and two friends from Italy. Darkness settled and we went inside the main tent for a delicious meal of chicken tagine, salads, fruits, and Moroccan bread. We had brought some wine, which we shared with the others. (The Germans were very grateful.) After dinner, one of the staff built a campfire while others started playing guitar and drums and singing Moroccan folk songs. The fire was welcome, as the desert cooled quickly after the sunset. The stars were amazing---the Milky Way was quite visible and we counted several shooting stars. You don't see stars like this in either Paris or Boston.
We were awoken a bit before dawn in the morning to head back across the dunes, watching as the sun rose, into town.
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| Kate all ready |
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| our rides waiting for us |
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| Kate and Caroline |
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| lengthening shadows |
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| the colors of the desert |
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| Caroline |
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| dunes as far as the eye can see |
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| our caravan met up with two others---we're the last four |
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| a busy intersection |
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| sunset |
Morocco is a big country, and adding in the Sahara trip in addition to Marakkech and Fes meant that we did a lot of driving, but the driving ended up being really interesting and quite relaxing. I'll talk more about other things we did on the road in Morocco in later posts.
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