Post #8 Oct 11th Over to the Sahara Desert.
The staff were running late. Judith’s phone call might have woke up the desk clerk who indicated to her that they’d be ready in 5 minutes. I decided not to have much of a breakfast, as I needed to finish packing. I didn’t have a great sleep the night before so I was going to sleep in the car ride.
It’s a long trip. We need to be on the road for 7 hours not including any stops. We set out and Fes is one big city. It’s the second largest city in Morocco with over 1.1 Million people. There are major roads but no expressways or through roads. It takes us a long time to get out of town because it’s like driving from downtown Vancouver to Mission without getting to use any highways. There are very few traffic lights; almost all intersections are controlled by traffic circles. The big circles are usually three cars across, but if there’s room for another vehicle, it will appear. Cars entering will often follow so close behind the one in front that no cars can squeeze into the flow from outside the circle or get across this flow or get across to leave. Police officers control the flow buy stopping it so that traffic can move, but it is a slow process if there’s heavy volume.
We pass by a section of 1 to 4 level homes and businesses along a 4 block strip that look as if they were in various stages of being demolished. Our guide indicated that there is a new Mayor for Fes who ordered these to come down as they were built without proper permitting. The former mayor allowed these units to be built without permits presumably because he was “on the take”. Since he has since passed, he cannot be prosecuted for his deeds.
The urban scapes quickly pass and the countryside is has combinations of rolling hills and flatter plains. We drive through a town, Imouzzer, which makes sense since the road we’re on translates to the ‘road to Imouzzer’. From there, we end up in a quaint little town Ifrane. This is a university town up in the hills with a streetscape that might make you think you’ve landed in some Swiss resort town. It’s full of tourists and tour buses because rest stops between Fes and the desert are few and European style town is a tour driver’s dream. We end up talking a walk around the block to stretch out legs, take a bathroom break at the L’empreinte D’Ifrane and then we get back on the drive.
More European style buildings
About 15 minutes outside of our last stop is a place called Ben Smim where several buses had stopped to look at some macaque monkeys. Ben Smim is located in the Atlas Mountains and it has a local hill trail known as Monkey Trail that ascends 820 ft. We didn’t stop, we’ve seen lots of macaques in our travels.
The topography flattens right out. The Atlas Mountains can be seen in the distance and there are miles upon miles of this scene. We pass through towns such as Azrou, Timahdite and Itzer. There are pockets of farming, fields of bananas covered in netting, apples and orange groves and then barren plains. We stop for lunch at the Ksar Timnay Hotel and Restaurant. We have lunch outside on a table in the orchard out front. We’ve figured out that given the sizeable proportions, sharing a single meal is the best way not to waste food a lot of food. The first dish was a Moroccan salad consisting of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, cilantro, lemon and oil and vinegar. It tasted great. It was followed by a vegetable turine and a crème brule for Judith and fresh fruit for me. The crème brule wasn’t up to North American standards —there was no crisp topping of carmelized sugar, but the consumer said it was OK.
As we leave, Mounien tries to pick some plums off one of the fruit trees but they seem out of reach. Our driver walks up and gives the trunk a good shake and we hit the mother lode. The plums end up being really good; Judith declares they’re the best she’s ever had.
These are the plums. They developed the splits after falling to the ground.
We head back on the road. Lots of Morocco is inhabited by nomadic peoples and we can see up ahead that one of the tour buses has pulled over to have a closer look at one such settlement. We pull over as well and can see there’s a long line of bus tourists heading towards that settlement. I was reluctant to be a part of that; we just stood near the car and I planned to take pictures from afar. As we stopped a couple of donkeys had gotten loose and a stallion was trying to chase down a mare who clearly didn’t want any part of him. They raced across the road and split the line of tourists scrambling to avoid being donkey carnage. It was close.
Sheep being tended. They are an important source of income.
There are many nomadic tribes residing in Morocco in and around the Atlas Mountains, the plains in the Southern region and the Sahara Desert. They are nomadic, in search of pastures for their herds of camels, goats and or sheep setting up camp for however long the pastures last and then moving on to find new grazing lands. Their numbers reduce every year with families leaving a very harsh life to seek jobs or agricultural crop endeavours.
We stop at a viewpoint over looking the Ziz River Gorge. It’s an awe inspiring vista, with tall sheer canyon walls leading down into a lush river valley. I’m always amazed how beautiful planet earth can be.
The eastern end of our view. Neither of these pictures give you a sense of how magnificent this gorge is.
Our destination is Erfoud and we make it there around 4:30. It’s been a long day of driving and we’re not done yet. We meet our 4x4 driver Hassan and we pile into the back seat of a Toyota LandCruiser Prado 4x4 and say good-bye to Mounien and Laribee our driver and head off.
Transitioning to the 4x4
We are heading towards the dunes of Erg Chebbi, considered to be the largest dunes in the Sahara Desert . These dunes are probably the largest in the Sahara. Our route takes us southeast. We pass a flat plain and off in the distrance we can see the sand dunes of the Sahara. We stop to take a few photos of us and the red sand dunes in the distance.
The selfie.
We finally reach the dunes and we get to drive on them to the camp.
A sand dunes ride video.
We arrive at the camp and get settled into our accommodations for the evening.
More bathroom area. The shower stall leaked everywhere.
Next up, we have a camel riding experience to see the sunset. We get into a long line of camels and their riders and set off. It’s a riding experience that you have to get used to. Fortunately there is a metal handlebar that allows you to stay hang on (there are no stirrups) because the camel pitches forward significantly to stand up. If you’re not leaning back and holding on, you’ll be pitching forward, maybe enough to leave your camel. We plodded along the sand dunes and then dismounted to watch the sun go down. We got back on some camels (a different set) and came back to the camp.
Sunset over the camp
Still smelling like camels, we went and assembled for dinner in the dining tent.
We finished dinner around 9:30 and went straight to bed. It was a long day and both of us were bagged.
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