Hey everybody! I hope you all are doing well!
The day after the Hamam/torture chamber we took an 8-hour bus ride up and over the Atlas Mountains (which run 1,600 miles through Morocco and Algeria the tallest of which is Mt. Toubkal in Morocco) and down to the small town if Zagora. Here is where we would begin our trek into the desert.
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| Stretching our legs from the long bus ride |
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The rocky desert of the Northern Sahara
We stayed the night at a local hotel and woke up bright and early the next morning to meet with our guides. As we walked over towards their office we were greeted by an extremely friendly man who waddled (waving and smiling) towards us dressed in full desert gear. Turban, baggy shirt and baggy pants (which made him look like he was wearing pajamas), and of course a classic pair of fake RayBans. Come to find out he would be our guide for the next 5 days and it would be hard to find a nicer guy then Muhammad. Apart from our guide, we also met up with two of our porters named Hussein and Mubarak.
We all loaded up into an ancient van that looked about one good speed bump from falling apart and took off down the road to where we would meet the camels. We drove for around an hour and a half until we reached a small patch of rock in the middle of a whole lot of sand. We started unloading the van and before long six lumbering camels and two guys joined us. We introduced ourselves as they were loading up the camels (their names where Doud and Mubarak). Soon everything was packed and our van took off, leaving us alone in the middle of the desert with 5 strangers and 6 camels… So we started walking, and walking. It was a completely different experience from our trekking in Nepal; it was flat, super hot, nothing growing, no water and nobody else! It was slightly frustrating to see a place in the distance that looked fairly close, only about a half hour walk… but half an hour later it would
still be just as far away! Also, contrary to popular belief (or at least what I
thought) the dessert is not completely made up of sand dunes. Far from it, we
walked for 4 days and it was mostly on hard, flat ground made up of rocks and
dirt. |
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| The view from the drivers perspective! |
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| Loading up the camels! |
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| Mubarek! The master tea maker! |
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| Hmmm....this the right way? |
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| The tents! |
That first
night out we did get to camp in some really cools sand dunes. Our porters
set up three little tents and one giant tent for cooking and eating. That night
we watched as they gathered the little firewood the desert had to offer and
made two giant fires. In one they places a huge wad of dough that they had made
earlier (it made a really delicious sand bread) and in the other the placed the famous “tagine”. Now if you guys have
read my friend Godwin’s blog, you will know just how… interesting these things
are. If you haven’t read it then here is a brief summary. The tagine is a
pyramid shaped device usually made out of clay; the tagine was invented by the
desert nomad’s way back when and is a favorite in local cuisine. Inside of this
strange pot like thing the chef’s place anything they can get their hands on,
whether its edible or not. They then cook this over a fire for around 45
minutes and after it has turned into a suitable mush it is time to dine. It is
in fact so interesting, that we decided that the way Moroccans must torture
people is by feeding them nonstop tagines, while having a hamam and then making
them walk around in the Sahara for a while. Besides the food, the whole trip
was amazing and really fun. But unfortunately I am way behind on my blogging
and have to catch up, so I’m afraid I’ll have to skip the rest of the trek
through the desert.
