We drove until the road ended, to the extreme East of Morocco and only about 20 miles from The Algerian border. From here, the mode of transport would be a 1 ¼ hour camel ride into the endless Sahara to experience living like a desert nomad for the night.
S saddled up on his camel, who didn’t seem very pleased to have a passenger based on all the intimidating grunting noises it made (the camel, not S). E decided to walk the entire way to camp alongside the others on their camels.
Camels are fascinating animals and not just because they can survive extreme lengths of time without water. Camels appear very calm and serene animals despite their roles as ships of the desert. You can simultaneously feel their power and their patience. They are said to be smarter than horses or dogs. They recognize faces and remember those that have mistreated them in the past. While S’s camel seemed not well, he walked steadily and had no trouble keeping up with our camel train. When told of the camel’s discomfort, our leader shrugged and carried on.
The camel caravan attempted to find the flattest route often swerving around the endlessly undulating dunes. E and one of our guides walked in a straight line up and down the dunes. At some points, the camel caravan could spot E climbing up a dune off in the distance and at other times her location was hidden in the valley behind dunes.
E thoroughly enjoyed her walk. It was more than a little strenuous walking up and down the dunes in the thick sand with shoes on, but she loved every minute of it. When challenged by a fellow caravanner to run up one of the monster dunes, E dutifully charged up the dune effortlessly – much to the delight of the caravanners. On the return journey, E also walked and ended up trekking and conquering the tallest dunes in her path. She was able to get some amazing photos near and far of her fellow travelers on their camels.
We trekked up one last steep dune and from the top we finally saw our camp at a distance in a valley surrounded by tall dunes. The camp felt very isolated and was a peaceful retreat and escape from city life. Once we arrived and camels were dismounted, the shoes came off and we were running up and down the surrounding dunes in our bare feet. Being barefoot made it LOTS easier to move in the sand.
Dinner was delicious and served under the stars. At first, it was a bit cloudy; however, as the night wore on, the sky cleared and the stars came out to play. After dinner, we requested the camp turn out any extraneous lights to help the starry night shine ever brighter. A group of us climbed a tall dune yet again to take in the view. It was magical. Laying on our backs, we saw millions of stars and more than a few shooting stars. We had a clear shot of the Southern Cross…something we in the Northern Hemisphere don’t get to see.
Less gloriously, we saw some mysterious light green flashes of light in the distance from the direction which we had come earlier that day. We still don’t know if it was heat lightning or camera flashes? Aliens? Locals having fun with us? It’s a mystery.
The desert silence was truly awe inspiring, and we tried to get our group to become silent and to take it all in for a while. As soon as we accomplished our difficult task (we had a gregarious group, so it was like herding cats), the camel drivers in our camp began playing music – lots of drums, singing and hand cymbals. It echoed throughout the desert. It was so loud in fact that we saw some quad bikes coming our way. They stopped a distance away from us and a couple of riders started walking towards our camp. We couldn’t really see them but did see the glow of their cell phones approaching slowly from a distance and then stopping several hundred yards away to look in on our camp. This made us city folk a little uneasy – unsure if these were friends or not. We notified our camp crew and they checked things out and reassured us “everyone is friends out here – no worries”. I guess they were our “friends” because nothing more came of this during the evening.
At that point, we decided we wouldn’t get the quiet meditative experience of this vast wilderness and decided to join in on the musical fun. We took turns playing drums and singing through the rest of the evening. First we listened to local Moroccan music and then took over the instruments to sing our Western favorites.
The next morning, we woke up early to watch the sunrise – running up many peaks and skree running the steep dunes to the bottom. A few of us rolled down the hills and one of our fellow travelers grabbed a camp snow board and wiped out going down the hill. He lived…only a little worse for wear.
While we were never that far from civilization, we felt like we were in a different world. The desert is just endless and massive. And there are just no signs of water or life – aside from a few small animal footprints in the early morning sand. All the way to the eastern horizon we could see nothing but sand and dunes. It’s hard not to feel helpless and small against the backdrop of the massive blue sky and the gloriously red dunes. We could have easily stayed here longer, but it was time to return to civilization and continue onward to our next area of Morocco – The High Atlas Mountains for a few days of trekking.
Wearehere 