For previous days of my trip to Morocco with Intrepid (called Morocco Uncovered, I didn’t make that up myself) please read the following:

• Day 1: Travel and Casablanca
• Day 2: Casablanca and Rabat
• Day 3: Meknes and Volubilus
• Day 4: Chefchaouen
• Day 5: Fes
• Day 6: Midelt
• Day 7: To the Desert

Day 8: At the desert near Merzouga: We had to wake up early for our sunrise camel ride, so obviously it was still dark when I awoke, but it wasn’t raining, yay! I got dressed and got my scarf tied around my head (I couldn’t do this myself, but all of the Moroccan guys working at the hotel knew how to do it) and when it was time, we all walked over to where the camels were hanging out.

I was pretty nervous, but it all happened pretty fast, and before I knew it, I was up on a camel!

My camel led the way up the dunes. When we got a little ways out, the guides had the camels sit back down and we all got off and took pictures and watched the sunrise. From our group, Travis and Renee walked off and then we watched as he proposed to her, which was very fun and exciting for them (she said yes!). And the guys made a little a fire to warm up.

After the sun rose a bit we got back on the camels (link goes to a video of me on the camel while it stands up, a must watch!) and headed back to the camp to finish packing up and eat breakfast.

Other videos I uploaded that I recommend you take a quick look at: Two of the camels chewing, and my camel breathing. They are strange animals!

Sorry for the pictures being a bit out of order!

Anyway, breakfast was tasty: mostly bread/crepes with various jams, and the coffee was good.

We got loaded into the bus and headed for our next stop, which was a quick stop in Erfoud to try dates and get encouraged to buy some. They were delicious and melted in your mouth and would have bought a bunch if I could have brought them home, but I didn’t think that was allowed through customs.

We drove a long way between the anti Atlas and the high Atlas mountains. It was a beautiful drive, but far. Our itinerary said it was 7 hours of driving today. The desert is FAR away from everything else, but it was so worth it.

We made a few more stops of course: a cafe stop for bathroom and coffee, and then we had lunch at a restaurant that was in somebody’s house in a small village near Todra Gorge. We all got served plates of food and then paid a set price. I never minded this sort of thing as I knew food would be extra, but if you are hoping to really save money on food, sometimes that would mean simply having to a skip a meal or something, and the meals were overall really good! Sometimes we got to order from menus, but not always. In any case, this was a delicious meal. It was a house owned by people who were Amazigh, which are the native (pre-Arab) people of Morocco. This was probably the best lunch we had…or at least one of.

After lunch we walked along Todra Gorge. What an amazing sight to see–the road ran through it, but everybody was on foot for the most part. There were some hotels that used to be there but that had been closed down due to rock falls.

I believe we made a grocery store stop before heading to our destination for the night, but I didn’t write that down. I didn’t buy any beer or wine, but some people did (the places don’t usually serve it, but we were told we could bring some along.) I enjoy wine, but figured I could have some time without it as well!

The last part of the drive was on a winding road through the mountains and was absolutely stunning. Our driver did a great job with the winding roads and we always felt like he was driving very safely.

We got to the gite (guesthouse) for the night. They gave us tea and snacks first and then took us to our rooms. I got one with twin beds. This place was really neat: it was in a village called Bou Tharer in the M’Goun Valley, in a very old, very traditional looking building. We had a little time to unpack (I did some sink laundry), and then went over the restaurant building for dinner.

It was funny, because we were staying here for two nights, and we were one of two groups we saw…and then we realized the other group was our exact tour but that had left the day before. Us, but from the future! The Morocco Uncovered Tour is very popular and has one that leaves almost every day–we also knew there was one behind us so we figured we would see them the next day.

Dinner was very nice: soup, lamb tagine, (bread and olives of course). Guess what dessert was: yes! Fruit! Sliced oranges, bananas, and apples. No chance of getting scurvy on this tour.

It was cozy in the room, though the walls were a bit thin. I had some internet in the room, and chatted with Louie a bit this night as well. It might have ended up just being a long distance call–my plan has phone calls for 25 cents a minute, which sounds high until you remember living pre-cell phones! Remember long distance calling? Anyway, I was never amazed to hear Louie’s voice clearly from thousands of miles away. And then I read my book until I was too tired.