Trip Log: Sahara Desert
March 15th, 2010Time to get my sand on. I decided to take a trip to the Sahara Desert, some of which is contained within Morocco. It was a great two-day trip complete with a long camel trek into the heart of the desert, huge sand dunes, amazing views of the night sky, and sleeping in the tent of local Berber people…out of sight from any city lights.
After eight hours of driving, mostly through the tortuous Atlas Mountains, we spent our first night in the Dades Gorges, a gorge in the heart of the mountain range. This is the road that led up to our hotel:
To protect myself from the elements, it was recommended to buy a head scarf. If you do that, the locals will wrap it around your head. Here I am, prepared for the desert…and a jihad.
Camel ride during a Sahara sunset. Amazing view.
Half of our group (and my favorite photo of the trip.)
Camels, even more so than horses, do a number on your legs. Once we got off the camel none of us could walk normally. Anyway, we rode camel-back for over two hours and soon nighttime arrived. The ride was arduous and the only thing keeping me going was the hope of seeing a big roaring campfire with lots of food spread around it. Not quite. The camel ride ended, but that only meant we had to walk the rest of the way. Sahara by day was fun and exotic. Sahara by night — pitch black and being led by a guide that spoke none of the languages I did — was cold and frightening. Finally we arrived at the tent, which thankfully was already set up.
After a great dinner, the guides wanted us to walk up the nearby sand dune. While the base of the dune was calm, halfway up the wind picked up and soon it turned into a sandstorm. If you haven’t experienced a sandstorm…good for you. It was a deafeningly loud mess of wind and sand and more sand that forces you to walk with your eyes closed, your mouth shut, and your ears covered by your hands. My shoes filled with sand, making as if I was walking with a sandbag on each foot. Our campfire light was no longer visible. One of the Brits in our group stated it best with a succinct “This is no longer enjoyable.” When I returned to the tent, I discovered sand everywhere…in my ears, up my nose, and in my delicates.
Here is our tent, at the base of the dune we climbed (and whose size was very hard to capture with photo).
Nighttime musical entertainment by the Berbers.
Speaking of Berber music, upon returning to Marrakesh I went to a local CD shop to look for a specific Berber band that our driver was playing a lot during the trip. I knew the name of the band and asked the shop owner for it. It was clear he didn’t have it, but all of a sudden his face lit up and he ran to the back to get a copy…or so he said. He returned with a CD covered in Arabic writing. He proudly pointed to the band name with his finger and said “Here it is, Archach (the name of the band). The best!”. Little did he know that ol’ Schricker can read Arabic writing, and the actual name on that CD was for an entirely different band. Punk. I told him, and he finally walked out of his store to make a genuine effort to find a CD.
March 20th, 2010 at 10:39 am
I was gonna say… you do look kind of like a scary Arabic with that head scarf on…