From an Oasis to a Night in the Sahara

Ziz Gorge.

Ziz Valley Oasis.

A donkey in the oasis.

Street scenes outside our lunch restaurant.

Our camels waiting for us in Merzouga.

Erg Chaabi Dunes.

 Two pictures taken by Hallid.

Our camp for the night, taken from the top of the dune.

Memories of the red sand dunes of Namibia.

Rachid joins the other three guides on a Moroccan singalong.

Monday, September 18^th.

Today we had a fairly long drive. We stopped several times for lookouts, pee breaks and snacks. We drove through Er Rachidia, a large city that is the frontier between Morocco and Algeria. There were lots of military bases there. The Moroccans are flirting with the EU and the EU has decreed that they have to seal the border between the two countries in order to stop the flow of refugees and militants.

As we drove we followed a river and a long oasis. We stopped at a restaurant beside it for lunch. We had the buffet which had a number of Moroccan dishes. We stayed here for a couple of hours because Rachid didn't want us to get to the desert too early as it would be too hot. Wim, Andrew and I took advantage of that to go for a short walk through the date palm groves of the oasis. It was beautiful there and much cooler in the shade. I also went out and walked along the street to watch what was happening in the area.

Finally we got back in the van and drove on. The landscape became more and more barren as we headed south, with only the occasional gum or palm tree. When the sealed road ended we drove for about twenty kilometers to our destination: the Auberge Samala. This was the place where we were going to leave most of our luggage in the van and only take what we needed for our Sahara camp. From there we could see the red sand dunes and they reminded me very much of the dunes in Namibia. We organized our kit and a cup of tea and then we loaded up on our camels for the ride to camp. Unfortunately Joanne was feeling poorly and she had to stay behind, and Rachid stayed with her. I decided not to take my new good camera or my computer with me because of all the sand. I took my back up camera as it is already banged up.

The caravan took over an hour across the red dunes. We had two local Berber guides with us and one lead the cararvan on foot and the other followed along with us. He took a camera from each one of us and took some photos for us as the camels walked on. I've been on camels before but this was the best. The scenery and dunes were beautiful and peaceful and with the sun setting the atmosphere was amazing. As we came over the last dune we found our home for the night. It was a little compound of six rectangular tents in a rectangle. We quickly got organized for our climb up the big dune beside our camp. The dune was very large (150 metres) and walking in bare feet was an arduous climb. We got to the top after the sunset but did get some of the glow. After taking a few group shots we descended, this time down the very steep side, to camp. It was great going down and sinking into the sand and causing sand slides.

When we got down we had a dinner that our local guides had cooked for us: a soup and some chicken and vegetable tagine. And Rachid had joined us, as Joanne was feeling better, along she stayed at the Auberge. After dinner we gathered around a campfire and Halid, Rachid and Rachid played some drums for us and sang some songs. Some people hung around the fire and talked and sang, but I headed back to the camp. Some of us wanted to sleep in the tents and others outside. I chose the later. I took a mattress and a blanket to the edge of camp and spread myself out to admire the stars and soak up the atmosphere. The temperature was perfect, but unfortunately, the wind was picking up and blowing sand around. I lay there for a while but it was getting worse and I was getting sand in my ears, eyes and nose. I gave up and went into one of the tents and lay on the indoor mattress and tried to sleep, but it was very windy and the tents were banging around a lot. I finally did fall asleep for a few hours.

I was just showing Rachid the photos of John and I climbing the dune in Namibia in 2010, and I noticed that I am wearing the same orange shirt... yikes, too funny.