Merzouga to Skoura

Wednesday, May 15

It got quite chilly during the night in the desert, maybe down to 10C.  We heard the wind howling all night, so we didn't hold much hope of our camel ride, but at 5:20 am someone came to our tent "time for camels!"  Ten minutes later we almost tripped over the camel guide who was laying across the entrance to our tent.  It was just the 2 of us, and the two camels were attached by rope, with the camel guide walking in the lead.  We had to hold on tight to the bar, especially while the camel was getting up or down, or crossing over dunes.  The camels struggled a bit with the dunes because they sank in.

At first when we set out it was dark, it was really surreal riding camels over dunes in the dark.  Then the guide stopped and put a blanket for us to sit on at the top of a dune, and we watched the "sunrise" over the desert.  Only we couldn't see the sun rising because of clouds (sand?) but we did see it getting lighter and lighter.  We watched a scarab beetle scuttling his way up the sand dune.  The guide laid down and at one point we were sure we heard snoring.

Eventually the sun came out and it cast really cool shadows across the dunes.  After an hour we thought it was time to go back to camp, but the camel guide all of a sudden pulled out a bag and started displaying his own mini market for sale.  We asked him how much for the tajine pot (to display on our mantle), he doesn't speak English so he wrote 500 (dirhams) in the sand.  That's about $70, ha ha.  Frankie said too much and wrote 50 in the sand.  He didn't answer so we thought that was the end of the bargaining, and a few minutes later he came out with "okay".  So that was far too easy.

Back at camp we had breakfast and were on our way.

The very first thing when we left camp, the 4X4 got stuck in a sand dune.  It took some fancy maneuvering to get us out.  Yassour took us the long way, around the dunes in the desert.  When it's not sand dunes, it is flat areas with lots of lava rocks.  We passed other tented camps, but with a dozen tents rather than 5 like ours had.  We passed through a French village which is empty right now but used in the winter.  We also saw some real nomadic homes, and Yassour stopped so we could see what they are like.  It had about 4 "buildings" made from mud and scrub brush.  Apparently the woman moved here with her children because her husband took a second wife without her permission.

We stopped at Khamlia, a Sudanese settlement village where we were served Moroccan whiskey (sugared tea) and treated to singing and dancing.  Then Yassour took us to a reservoir that was pretty low right now, which had flamingos in it.

We were transferred back to Brahim.  On the way out of the desert we saw huge dust devils and actual desert mirages.  We crawled through a town which had market day.

Then Brahim made a fossil stop where we could see rocks with fossils in them.  Someone had left a bottle of water in a bush which you could use to pour over the fossils to see them better.

There were alot of rally cars on the road today, there is a race going on.  It is the Moroco Historic Rally, a 6 day 2500 km rally.  We saw lots of Porches and Renaults.

We were headed to the Todra Gorge, but right before we got there, Brahim pulled over to the side of the road in front of a restaurant.  The owner came to our van with menus, we put in our order, and off we went to the gorge while the owner made our lunch.  Very efficient!  Brahim let us out so we could walk along the gorge.

This is where we had our first unpleasant experience with a vendor.  He followed us wanting to sell us necklaces "handmade by my mother" "please so my family can eat lunch".  Frankie was all set to buy a few because we thought he said one for five dirhams.  Okay.  But apparently what he really said was one five, which means 105 dirhams.  No thank you.  There was a bit of an argument before we forcefully told him to go and leave us alone.  Then a Berber family asked if we wanted to take their picture.  Frankie warned Anton that they would want money for the picture, and he was okay with that.  After the picture, the hands all shot out and he gave one of the girls 10 dirhams for the family, which was quite generous, but they were quite upset because they EACH wanted a coin.  Anton would have been better off giving them each a single dirham and they would have been happier, and it would have only cost us 4 dirham.  Live and learn.

Back to La Petite Gorge for our waiting lunch on a nice terrace.  Frankie ordered a coke and compared the label to the t-shirt she was wearing that she bought in Jerusalem.  They didn't match!  Brahim finally explained that her t-shirt was in Hebrew, not Arabic like she had always believed.

We drove through a rose valley, and Brahim pulled over to show us some caves that the nomadic mountain people move into in the summer because the mountains are too cold.

We made it to Skoura (the Valley of the Palms) and took some really off the beaten path roads to get to our hotel, Les Jardins de Skoura.  We have a very nice suite here with our own balcony.  The owner Caroline gave us an extensive tour of the hotel, which really seems more of a villa, with twists and turns and lots of terraces and gardens.  She said the water is actually safe for tourists here, that is the first safe water we've encountered (safe bottled water is plentiful).  It was nice to relax and enjoy the garden while blogging. Caroline is very involved in making sure everything is perfection.  At supper (a wonderful turkey tajine!), they made sure that everything was gluten free, and even made a special dessert for Frankie!