The following day we headed out for another long journey, (10 hours) to the Sahara Desert and our dessert camp at Merzouga. We would highly recommend anyone taking a similar trip to Morocco take more days or have less stops. Retrospectively we wish we had identified this as a problem on the propped itinerary before we booked it, we all found the long days driving and then only staying one night in most places too much. Along the way to our dessert destination, we crossed flooding highway, and at least two or three places where the highway could not be used because of rockslides, luckily the old highway was adjacent and a good substitute. We stopped at several picturesque views and visited the Torda Gorge. Along the way were many stands selling amazing fossils and geoids. At one stop Helen was thrilled to do some bargaining and add to our collection of special Moroccan treasures.
After a long drive, we arrived at the Erg Chebbi sand dunes, the starting point for our camel treck, just before sunset. We rode camels over the beautiful sand dunes for about an hour and a half, stopping on the top of a dune to see the sunset and moon rise, how lucky we were that it was a clear night and almost a full moon. The kids described it as “a cool experience”, commenting “the camels were much taller than we expected”. We arrived at the camp at about 7:30 pm and enjoyed the refreshing homemade lemonade. We settled into our glamorous tents (so different from what we are used to when camping). They were more like permanent houses with washrooms running water and almost solid walls.
We enjoy another lovely meal at the camp. This time sampling a zucchini, tomato and pepper tangerine, as well as a delicious Moroccan chicken tangerine with lots of raisins and spices. After dinner, we headed out to open fire where the camp staff, all Berber dressed in their traditional attire, and they sang, played their traditional drum music and danced. Sophie was quickly pulled into a dance with the camp owner, his lead was quite challenging to follow, but she did a great job. We climbed the surrounding sand dunes to see amazing views of the stars and night around the camp. Although we were worried about our sleep with the camels right behind Helen and Alastair’s tent, they did not disturb us. Unfortunately, due to the long journey of the next day, we had to head out early. We woke to see a beautiful sunrise and before leaving Sophie and Aiden both got to enjoy some Sand Boarding.