Travel Stories - Morocco

Early this morning we took the bus from Tingrir to Erfoud where we arrive at lunchtime. This is the last big city before we go to the desert at the border with Algeria. We meet a Canadian couple who complements us together with a Moroccan boy towards Merzouga, the city that is our final destination today. On arrival we check in, in our intended hotel (together with the other three) and book a tour for tomorrow into “Erg Chebbi”. The Moroccan boy appears to have worked here in a hotel and for few we can buy a few bottles of beer and a bread that we take to the surrounding dunes. We look at the many date palm trees that grow here. It is wonderful to see the sun go down and enjoy what we have brought with us. Suddenly it is pitch dark and we decide to go for a real dinner; it becomes the national Moroccan dish "Tajine" which we traditionally collect from a large plate. Music is played in the background by a group of Berbers who stay here also. We can’t wait for tomorrow. 

We eat our breakfast with the 5 of us on the large terrace outside. After the ladies have been in the village to check out the small market we also have lunch together. Then we re-pack our bags and prepare ourselves for the tour later today with the (in)famous camel ride. The sun has already dropped considerably but has not lost much of its power as our guide helps the camels. We are with the five of us and will go through the beautiful dunes of the Moroccan Sahara desert to the black desert near the Algerian border. Our camels are bound together and looking at the sand, in which our shadows can be seen, we look like a medieval caravan. Fully packed against the burning sun we parade on dune edges and then sink deep into the sand again. It is not surprising that countless films - including westerns - have been recorded in this beautiful environment. It starts to get a bit dark (twilight) when we arrive in an oasis behind the mountains that we saw yesterday from Merzouga. Just a bit further afield there lies the Algerian border tells our guide. While the guide starts cooking together with another guy, we have some free time. We climb the highest dune to enjoy the panorama. Here we have a romantic get together when the sun goes down - one of the most beautiful ever experienced. Just before it gets really dark we are back at our own nomad tent and tea is ready. A little later we get our food after which we try to play ourselves some tamtam on the drum brought along. 

A few hours later, weary of the camel, we say goodbye to the others and shuffle towards our own berber tent. After a perfect night we are awakened by our guide; “you have to hurry to see the sunrise”, he smiles. We take quickly some stuff and rush to our panorama point to see it and it’s worth it. After breakfast we pack our stuff together and climb up our ships of the desert again for a trip back to Merzouga. There we pick up our large bags, repack and take a shared taxi back to Erfoud via Rissani.