Erg Chebbi Escapade

After a specially arranged 7:00am breakfast at Riad Myra (still just as delicious) we were on the road at 7:45am for our big day of driving to Merzouga. After yesterday's practice run, getting out of the city in the light early morning traffic was a breeze.

We were still struggling to get the hang of Moroccan speed limits though, which seem to go up and down like a yo-yo. Not helped by the fact that some "speed limit" signs seem to be the equivalent of "speed advisory" signs before curves - with no corresponding sign after the curve to say the speed limit has reverted to what it was before the curve. Some speed signs have a yellow background instead of a white one, but from our observations these seem to be pretty much universally ignored so we're still not sure what they are for.

And so it was that we started to adopt the "monkey see monkey do" tactic of following what the locals do. Unfortunately we followed the wrong monkey and both of us were pinged in a police radar trap for allegedly doing 80kph in a 60kph zone. I doubt were were doing exactly the former but we probably were doing more than the latter and since none of the four-man police team spoke English we just had to cop it sweet. Mind you, had they spoken English we might have explained that the amount of time taken to write up the ticket and receipt for the 300 dirham fine - which was at least 15 minutes - meant that we might have to speed more to make up time! :-)

Starting a climb after Midelt.

Anyway we continued on our merry way with a lighter wallet and a more wary eye for speed signs (at least for a while). Just after Ifrane we drove through what is apparently a winter ski resort area - who knew! At Midelt Laura took over the driving for a while just before we started the climb through some mountains, which wasn't much fun. The mountain scenery was pretty amazing though. At Efroud we stopped in search of some lunch and a local chap directed us away from a little take-away shop we were headed towards as he said it was dirty and we would get sick.

The greenery clings to the water courses.

He assured us that he had no vested interest in his suggested alternative cafe further up the street and since the very nice paninis that we had cost the usual menu price he was probably on the level.

Moroccans sure can load a truck!

At Rissani we passed through a bit of water on the road which was a first - apparently there had been a bit of rain in these parts recently. When we reached Merzouga we passed through a 100 metre stretch of water on the road, though it was only about ankle deep. Shortly afterwards we arrived at Ahmed's place with 40 minutes to spare for the 5:00pm start time of our Quiet Merzouga Desert Tour. After a nice chat with Ahmed, and a cold drink and some nuts, he led us across the road to where the camel ride starts at the base of the sand dunes in the Erg Chebbi desert.

Water over the road at Merzouga.

Joining a conga line of camels.

At 5:30pm we were aboard our camels, and with four other guests, were on our way. It was my first time on a camel, though Laura had experienced a three-day camel trek in India many years ago and hadn't found it a very pleasant experience. On this occasion though it was only a 45 minute ride through the dunes, and although I didn't find it too uncomfortable (they were very well mannered camels) I couldn't say that it was so fascinating that I'd need to do it again. It was a short walk from the unmount point to our Luxury Desert Camp - where every "tent" came equipped with a king size bed, a flush toilet and a shower with hot water. So not exactly roughing it.

Roughing it in style!

Sunset in the desert.

After checking out our tent we walked up the dune beside the camp to watch the sunset over the desert. I concentrated on trying to capture the play of shadows across the dunes as the sun set, rather than photographing the sunset itself. In that regard it would have been nice if the area was more pristine. With at least two other permanent desert camps visible in the distance and the dunes near and far showing tracks of 4WDs, motorbikes, camels and people (walking and sand-boarding), you don't exactly get the sense of being off the beaten track. But I guess that's the nature of a commercial desert experience. The sight of ubiquitous plastic water bottles littering the area was a bit of a bummer though.

Pre-dinner campfire.

Once we'd seen out the fading daylight we returned to our humble tent. After a day of not much food we were ready for dinner, but sadly it was not ready for us - we had to wait until 9:00pm as we were now on "desert time". The camp  bonfire was started and a few Berber musicians started to entertain. Once it was fully dark, at about 8:30pm, I tried some astral photography but as I expected the near full moon was just too bright to be able to capture stars. At least it helped fill in time until dinner, which was plentiful and filling. Vegetable soup, followed by chicken salad, followed by slowed cooked lamb with prunes, followed by fresh fruit salad for dessert. All delicious.

After dinner the campfire became the focus again and since our tent was only 10 metres away from it we were a little worried when a group of boozing fellow Aussies looked like they might be going to make a very late night of it. Thankfully they had wrapped up by midnight, by which time we had experienced our first desert hot shower and retired to bed.

The night sky in the desert.

I woke about 5:30am, and knowing that the moon had been due to set at 4:30am, I got up and went a little past the edge of the camp to take some astral photos. They seemed to work OK as there was only patchy light cloud, though the Milky Way wasn't high enough in the sky to really dominate the picture. Laura even got up for a while to look at the night sky and found it impressive. We were back in bed by 6:00am, and just under an hour later I arose again to capture the sand dunes at sunrise, which was at about 7:10am.

Sunrise shadows on the dunes.

Afterwards I had another lie down until about 8:15am when Laura was awake and ready for breakfast. I think we were about the last ones to eat, as everyone else had gone straight to breakfast from the sunrise.

We opted against returning to "town" via camel, so after packing up we were bundled into a 4WD with another couple and driven back to Ahmed's place via a route which bypassed the dunes. It took all of about 10 minutes. After a pleasant and interesting chat with Ahmed about Berber culture and how to live a good life we said our thanks and goodbyes and drove off for our next adventure.