Los Mochileros Atromelados

The trip to the Sahara desert... of of the highlights of our trip until now, and one of the things we wanted to do the most while in morocco...

Some months ago, while in the US still planning the trip (where to go, and where not), Pato told us about some of his friends that had done a big trip to many countries, and said that the most impressive thing they did was to go for a camel ride and then to camp in the Sahara desert... we got interested in the idea, and after researching a little we decided we wanted to do the same...

We went to the Sahara Expeditions agency in Marrakech, and arranged a 4-day trip to Merzouga, just in the entrance to the sahara desert, a place famous for the dunes... that is the best place to go if you ever do that trip. The problem is that it's kinda far from Marrakech... sometimes people don't have much time, so they end up being taken to southern Morocco (Merzouga is eastern Morocco).

One good thing about the trip is that, since the desert is so far away, they actually go stopping in many places in the way, so you end up getting to know a lot of places in Morocco you wouldn't normally go on a short trip. (it took us two days to get to Merzouga; non-stop driving is about 12 hours). For example, we stopped to check out some Berber villages (berber the people who inhabited Morocco before the Romans arrived), including one where they made a part of the Gladiator movie...

Other places we saw were nomad villages, where we met some people who live part of the year in the village, and part of the year in the mountains of Morocco... and the amazing Todras Gorge!!! The place is great: lots of opportunities for rock climbing, trekking...

On the second day, around evening, we finally arrived in Merzouga. The weather was really bad that day, really strong winds causing a bad sandstorm. Even though it was hot like hell, we had to close all the windows of the 4WD (no air-con!!) and the sand would not stop coming in!!! :S

One of the funniest things is that we were driving in a road, and then the driver suddenly turned right to the middle of nowhere... and, surprisingly, we started seeing some signs to the auberges (hostels)!!!

Once we arrived in our auberge, we waited for the sandstorm to go away, and then prepared to go for the camel ride and the camping... we wanted to leave as soon as we could, in order to be able to watch the sunset. And, since we were in the desert, of course we had to dress like the nomads! :)

The camel ride was a lot of fun (even though it hurt a bit), and the first day we got a really clear sky, so the sunset was nice and the desert was looking awesome.

We rode the camels for about one hour and a half, and the arrived at the camp site, in order to have dinner and sit outside to watch the the sky.

The next day we did the same thing... except the sky was not so clear... a pity for the people that just showed up there on the second day. Finally, we had to bear the 12 hour drive back to Marrakech, since Ivan, Rapa and Felipe had a flight do Madrid... Playboy and I would stay a week more in Morocco.

More pictures (click to enlarge):
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Posted by Matheus Beccalli on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 8:12 AM | Permalink