Yesterday we rose early to join a tour into the desert where we camped out in the dunes for the night. This tour (via mini-bus) took us up the Atlas Mountains again, but this time continued over and into the edge of the Western Sahara to a place called Zagora, just spitting distance from the Algerian border. It was a long time to travel in a 2-day tour, totaling in about 18 hours actual drive time not including the many stops we made along the way.
The journey was pretty amazing. The Atlas Mountains are really beautiful, huge, rocky and snowy on top, and the valleys way down the bottom are so lush with streams and rivers running through – it looks like green carpet. Once we reached the other side of the mountains, the vegetation was like a barren wasteland – so rocky and red with not a bit of green anywhere. In the photos below there is one showing the sedimentary rock in the Draâ Valley and a big gorge gouged out of the mountainside. The landscape remained pretty rocky and barren except for some oasis’ along the way, with green grass, palm trees and streams. At about 4:30 in the afternoon we finally got off the bus to be greeted by some very loud-mouthed (and foul smelling) camels, and we completed our journey to the Tinfou Dunes via Camel.
It was very peaceful out there in the dunes, very quiet with a slight breeze and a beautiful blue sky. Our hosts for the night brought us Berber Tea (mix of mint leaves with green tea leaves and sugar steeped in boiling water) and some nuts and crackers. We all had a lovely time watching the sun set over the mountains. There was a mix of South African, Italian, Spanish and American people in the group (along with us two Aussies).
At first the night was dark with a few stars out but soon enough the moon came peeking out and rose up over the mountains lighting up the dunes around us.
Later on we were given dinner – the usual stuff: chicken tagine, bread, oranges (I love how we are not eating any processed food here – it’s all fresh). Then a bonfire and some singing and carrying on and finally off to bed in a bivouac (tent). We were terribly thirsty as we didn’t bring extra water. We learned our lesson.
On the way home today we stopped off for a tour through Aït Ben Haddou, which is a fortified city, or “ksar”, situated in Souss-Massa-Draâ on a hill along the Ounila River and is known for its houses made of mud and stone, although they take damage with each rainstorm. You may recognise the village as several films have been shot there, the movie “Gladiator” being one of them. The village itself has been protected by UNESCO since 1987. Often for the shooting of films more buildings and walls are constructed just outside of the village, but they are then taken down again once the movie is finished. Most of the town’s inhabitants now live in a more modern village at the other side of the river; however, ten families still actually live within the ksar.
Glad to be back “home” in Marrakech and showered! We will have an interesting 24 hours of travel tomorrow as we have to make the trip back up to Spain. We ended up spending all our time in Marrakech and it’s surrounds rather than going to Casablanca and Fes as originally planned.
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