The Sahara Desert

We took a four day trip with a French couple and a Moroccan driver. We crossed the snow capped peaks of the High Atlas Mountains to Ait Ben Haddou which is a famed adobe castle. A shallow river separates the town from the castle and berbers on horseback ferried people across the river. Next on to Ouzazarte situated on a wide oasis. It is a modern city and the Hollywood of Morocco with its famous cinema studios. We crossed the Anti Antlas Mountains which are made of black rock cut by deep canyons. We passed through date and fig orchards and mud walled Berber villages until we reached Zagora where we mounted camels and rode into the desert. The sun set as we rode and we had only a small sliver of crescent moon to light the way. Our young guide leading the camels was very self-assured and we were confident he would not get lost. After almost two hours we reached the Berber camp and were treated to a lovely soup and chicken and vegetable tanjine. Around the campfire we were entertained with traditional instruments and singing.

The next day we arrived at the Merzouga Erg which are huge shifting dunes and where they filmed Lawrence of Arabia and many other desert films. We rode into the desert on camels again as the sun was setting. All the young bloods began to race up a huge sand dune. Donna followed suit and showed how fit she is. She made it to the top and then came down not out of breath while some of the young guys were completely exhausted. From the top she just leaned back while descending. It was so high it was just like flying on the way down. It was cold with the wind blowing sand everywhere almost instantly covering up everything behind you.

The next day we continued on to the Toudra Gorge, through the Dades Valley and the Route of a Thousand Kasbahs. Kasbahs are the ancient mud walled villages that are now being abandoned in favour of modern housing. A few families still live in them and nomads use them part of the year.

Still no pictures but if you Google these places you will get an idea what they look like.