Intrepid Travel | HANNAHVIOLIN

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 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!

I’m the one in the front, riding the 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!

We were all a bit sleepy from having to get up early!

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.

Is this a mule or a donkey? Now I can’t remember what I was told and I am NOT a livestock expert.

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.

The aforementioned closed hotels. Would be a cool place to stay, but getting killed by rockfall isn’t so cool.

Did I buy another scarf? This one seemed more like an Amazigh style. Did I have a great time bargaining for it? Yes, I did.

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.

My room. It was nice to sleep in one and use the other for a suitcase holder, ha!

Fireplace right by our dinner table. It was nice and warm this night.

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.

Aman serving up soup. You can see the bread bowl too, and somebody’s bottle of wine.

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.

Time for another installment of “Morocco Uncovered” recaps. For previous posts, please read these.

Day 7: It was still dark when I headed over to breakfast. The restaurant was in a different building than we were staying: we were all staying in one building but the hotel was spread out, and there was also a campground on site. It was kind of funny to see all the RV’s. And I would be very nervous about the campground bathroom, though I have no idea. It was quite cold for any sort of tent camping for sure, I didn’t see anyone doing that but I don’t know.

The front door to the building we were all staying in.

This was a screencap of my weather app, taken the night before. WINTRY MIX!?!

The sun was up after breakfast, sort of, and I took a few pictures of the grounds.

Another part of the hotel. There were a few other groups staying here, and they must have been in this area.

Outside the building. Lots of cool vines! You can see an RV coming through as well.

It was cold, and started raining as we set out. We had a long driving day ahead of us. We were headed for Merzouga to spend a night at the desert. We made a rest stop at a cafe and I got a nice coffee with milk. I paid 5 dirhams to use the toilet, because I didn’t have smaller change.

We made a few scenic stops along the way: one was a stop at the largest palm tree oasis in Morocco and perhaps the world.

We stopped at a buffet for lunch and enjoyed some nice chicken, lentils, and other Moroccan specialties such as couscous.

The rain continued and made us doubt ourselves: we were heading for the desert, to ride camels, IN THE RAIN? What are the chances?

We made another stop to buy scarves (for those that wanted) for our desert ride. Of course, it wouldn’t be too dusty with the rain, but still fun. I bought a nice purple and black one for 150 dirham.

And then finally we turned off the highway, and drove along the sand for 10-15 minutes. It was very bumpy and there was no discernable road, though there must have been a route the driver was following? It was hard to tell. We got the desert camp, our home for the night, and it was still raining.

We decided as a group to postpone the camel ride until the next morning in the hopes the weather would improve. We got assigned our tents: this was the one night I had to share, so Sabine and I shared a tent. They gave us tea and snacks as well, and then we had some downtime. It was cold and rainy, and then the power and water weren’t really working–the tents had bathrooms, but you needed power for the water, so that was frustrating, as there wasn’t a non-water bathroom option.

inside the tent when the lights were on.

You can see the tents on the side here, the black boxes.

We took a walk out on the dunes then as a group. The camp was set up right at the edge of the sand dunes, and it was really beautiful even in the rain.

You can tell it wasn’t raining that hard, it kept alternating between heavier and lighter rain. But not what you would expect for the desert!!

We hung around camp a bit after that, and waited for the water and power to start working again. No such luck, so we ended up walking to a nearby hotel for dinner. We were served soup, salad, chicken tagine, and of course, oranges, apples, and bananas for dessert. But we got word during dinner that the power and water were ON, and that was exciting.

After dinner our hosts plus Aman played some drums and sang around the fire. I hung out and listened for a bit as the rain had stopped, but it seemed to be starting up again and I turned in to bed. It was cold in the tent, but warm enough under the very heavy covers! Note: I finished my book that night, was reading “The Frozen People” by Elly Griffiths and really enjoyed it.