Erg Chebbi, Morocco - Camels & Dunes

The trip into the desert was one of the most memorable parts of our honeymoon. We learned that at night it gets very, very cold in the desert, and that camels don't really walk faster than humans. We also got to see the sunrise and sunset over the dunes, ate homemade Moroccan food, and got to make friends with our desert guide, Youssef.

Here's a photo of another caravan heading into the desert. I believe we took this from camel-top as we were heading out to our camp, in the far southeastern corner of Morocco, only a few miles from the Algerian border (closed for the last few decades after a border war between the two countries).  There are about 30 separate camps nestled in the dunes, but on the way out to ours we didn't see any other camps, just one other group of Spaniards riding camels too. In addition to camel tours, there are some 4x4 tours that visit the same dunes and in this picture you can see a local speeding past on the motorcycle. 

Here's a photo of our camels. Will's is the darker one in front, Omar Sharif, named for the famous Egyptian actor. My camel was Jimi Hendrix; gotta love globalization. Our guide Youssef walked ahead of Will's camel holding the rope and leading the way to the camp. Youssef walked the whole 2 hours; hard work going up and down the dunes! 

On our way out to camp we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the sunset. Here's WP's camel again resting in the sun.

And some more shots of the dunes, it was so peaceful! 

Check out this video WP took from his camel, which gives a better sense of the size of the dunes, and our slow progress through them. Also, if you listen closely you can hear Youssef chatting on his cell phone; who would have thought there's good reception out there!

Then WP decided it would be fun to slide down a dune...only to find out that the sand provides enough resistance that you don't actually slide, you just sit. Ha!

Finally he decided to roll down on this side, here he is at the bottom of the hill: 

And trying to get the sand out of his shoes, a lost cause: 

 

Just as it started getting dark we made it to the campsite. Here's a shot of the first stars comings out above a dune silhouette:

The camp was definitely "rustic," but did the job for the one night we were out there. This is the entrance to our sleeping tent. We had a small mattress with two blankets over it and ended up sleeping with 6 more blankets on top of us. There was a separate tent nearby with tables and benches where we ate dinner. In the morning Youssef came by to wake us up before sunrise by calling out "Mohammed, Fatima, time to get up!"

We ended up being the only two people on the tour, so we had lots of one on one time to get to know our guide. The slight complication was that Youssef speaks almost no English, so all the communication we were doing was in Spanish (it is really popular for Spanish people to come to the desert, so a lot of the guides know Spanish).  After dinner, Youssef made a small fire for us to sit around and he started singing some Berber songs and playing the drums you can see in the photo below. Eventually we ended up telling jokes back and forth (translating on the spot from English to Spanish), and even learned some good ones we want to try to remember.

Remnants of our fire from the previous night:

Here's what our little camp looked like, tucked away in a valley between some big dunes. 

Youssef grew up as a nomad in the desert, and when he was 15 his parents decided to move to a nearby town to settle more permanently. He never went to school because by the time he was 15 his parents decided it was too late for him. I think he is probably around 19 or 20 years old now, and seems to be doing OK for himself as a guide. We didn't have a whole lot in common with Youssef, but once all of us got more comfortable, we ended up having a good time. Funny guy.

The morning was so cold! After our wake up call we headed up the dunes to the "camel garage". Omar Sharif and Jimi Hendrix just hung out all night - not tied up or anything - and were there waiting for us in the morning. This was taken just as the sun was coming up. WP is sporting his pyjama pants over his jeans, the latest in desert style.  

And, to be fair, here's me being really cold too:

This pretty much sums up our desert excursion - we're such nerds, but we had to do this pose. Youssef took this one for us in the morning as the sun was rising. You can tell WP's camel was getting a little anxious to get back to the town to get fed. 

 

And with a different view:
                           

Back at the hotel where the tours leave from they had this delicious Moroccan breakfast waiting for us. Different breads with jams, butter and cheese!

Our original guides Ali and Omar came back to pick us up after breakfast, and we headed to a nearby market to see some more sights. Here's a one merchant with many delicious looking piles of spices: 

The livestock part of the market was pretty cool. This is where you bring your sheep, goats and other large animals to be inspected and bought. They are tied up along ropes according to species.

We also got a huge kick out of the donkey parking lot. All the people who bring veggies from small family farms to the market usually carry them in on the backs of donkeys.  People may live hours away from the "big" town so often on the larger roads you'll see people with their donkeys plodding along to get to the market. There is a guy who works at this lot watching the donkeys for the equivalent of about 10 cents/donkey for the whole day. 

Here are some cute little animals being sold (not as pets I'm guessing...) - rabbits and chickens are pictured below and look like they're huddling for warmth in the crates. 

Here's our little group! Omar, our driver throughout the whole trip, is standing to my left and Ali, our main guide, is on Will's right. Omar's brother Youssef (different from the desert Youssef) is on the far left and did the driving for us on the last day of the trip. 

Ali was a great guide - very knowledgable and friendly. We liked Omar a lot too. He spoke Berber, Arabic, a tiny bit of French and no English, so our verbal communication was pretty limited. We found out from Ali that he was a truck driver in the war with Algeria, and somehow that made Omar make more sense. He was like our Berber Grandpa; quiet most of the time but very smiley and seemed to be friends with everyone we met. We figured if he made it driving through the war, he could get us safely from town to town without any problem. 

We really started to miss Omar on our last day when Youssef was driving us to Fez and Ali had already left us to head to his next tour group. Moroccan road behavior is crazy, that much we already knew. Cars pass other cars and trucks all the time, sometimes on curves and at high speeds. Somehow when Omar did all this it seemed natural, but with Youssef there were more than a few times when I had to close my eyes. I think all of this was made worse when we realized Youssef was sick. At least 3 times he had to pull over to throw up in the bushes... not the most encouraging behavior from the guy who has  your life in his hands.

When we got to Fez if became clear pretty quickly that he didn't know where our hotel was, even though it was in the new city (less confusing part of town) directly next to the main train station. We purposely chose a hotel that'd be easy for them to find, and Ali assured us that the one we picked was "famous" and everyone should know where it was... everyone except Youssef apparently. It was kind of like what I imagine I would be like driving in New York City: lost, confused, and frustrated. After stopping to ask a few people and helping Youssef when we could with signage, and a couple near-misses where he started driving down one-way streets the wrong way (fun!), we found our hotel and were SO HAPPY to be there.

We didn't have a ton of time to see Fez, so just walked around some of the new town where we were staying. We were happy to get some photos of these political advertisements that we had been seeing throughout the country. These charts are painted on walls all over the place (often on schools) with stencil symbols for the different political parties, each corresponding to a number written in the box. Ali told us this helps folks with less education to vote for the party they support by using the symbol and number only and not necessarily words.

Here's another political stencil and a photo of Will hanging out on the train to Tangier. The train ride was awesome and we got to see a bunch of the Moroccan countryside. For most of the 5-hour trip we had this 6-seat compartment to ourselves.

From Tangier we took an hour long taxi ride to the border with Ceuta, the part of Spain that is in Africa. More on Ceuta and Gibraltar coming next... here's a sneak peek shot from Gibraltar (get pumped!):