Post # 9 Oct 12th, Sahara Sunrise and over to Ouarzazate
We wake early to catch sunrise over the sand dunes. Early for us on vacation is 6:30am. We are heading out to the nearby dunes at 6:50 and expect sunrise to happen around 7:15am. It’s interesting how the sand can be so soft is some parts and much harder on other sections so your footprints don’t sink in.
We find a spot on the dunes and wait for the sunrise. I have no cellular connection and there is no Wifi at the camp so I can’t verify the sunrise time. I just get to rely on the staff who advised us when to rise and be out on the dunes. And that seemed to work except we are very early. But it’s easy to amuse ourselves by just sitting and taking in the glorious view of the dunes.
The red sand is a result of its iron content. Sahara sand dust (about an average of 180 million tons annually) is blown into the atmosphere every year reaching Europe and North and South America. The dust contains both iron and phosphorus and small amounts of these minerals are used by both plants and phytoplankton in photosynthesis. And of course photosynthesis is the process that uses light energy, water and carbon dioxide to form oxygen and sugar, an important process for all life on earth.
The morning sunrise came and went and we enjoyed it a lot. A thousand pictures later and we head back to camp to get ready for the day.
Judith and I head for the main tent to have quick breakfast. We then head back to the tent, pack and go looking for Hassan who will take us back to meet up with Mounaim (just found out the correct spelling of his name) and Larribee. We’re just about ready to leave when one of the camp staff comes up advising that we need to pay for the two bottles of water. We had mistakenly assumed they were included. They were priced at 40 Dirham each equivalent to $5.62 CDN each. They have a captive audience, however we did pay up without question and I even gave them a tip…
We drive back to Erfoud and meet Mounaim and Larribee. On the way we pass through a weekly market at Arab Sebbah Ziz in a rural town.
Given how sparse the area we were driving through, it was surprising to see how crowded this market was.
We meet Mounaim and Larribee at Macro Fossiles Kasbah in Erfoud. This is a manufacturing place of fossils extracted from the surrounding hills which are laden with nautiloid cephalopods (similar shape to ammonites), orthocerid cephalopods (straight shelled), trilobites, brittle starfish, etc. The fossils date back to the Paleozoic Era when the Moroccan Sahara was the floor of a large prehistoric ocean. We tour through the shop with a representative from Macro Fossiles. He has a limited amount of English but still gets the message across. The shop area is mostly outdoors and we first look at the large slabs that have been cut for tables or counters. The factory has a large circular saw to cut out these slabs. At the next station, artisans are busy grinding out the shapes of the fossils from large forms. They use an angle grinder with a 35 grit grinding wheel to remove excess stone and then put on progressively finer wet-dry sandpaper to 600 grit to make the stone smooth. A buffering wheel with polishing compound brings out the final shine.
This is a close up of a slab and you can see the straight shelled fossils in the rock — and also a reflection of Judith and I.
The rock is sprayed with water so that the fossils stand out. The rock base is limestone.
The same fossils here but the rock contains carbon, resulting in a black base.
At some point one of the owners happens to hear his employee tell us the wrong material used for a decorative ribbon insert (it was brass not bronze) and he took over. Raffa, the grandson of the founder, then proceeded to show Judith and I the rest of the factory. I found it fascinating as I have dabbled in lapidary and all the equipment I’ve used were the size of toys compared to those at this operation. We walk through the gallery of signature pieces and the showroom that has a combination of these pieces and smaller items to purchase. I like the fact that the prices are labeled but just about every price is subject to negotiation. We stay too long at the fossil place. Raffa talks extensively about some of the pieces. They are lovely but eventually Mounaim catches up with us and subtly gets us to think about leaving.
This is a piece that caught Judith’s eye.
The showroom. While fossils is the main product line, they also sell lots of minerals including malachite, amethyst, and hematite to name a few as well as lots of geodes with a variety of crystals including amethyst and citrine.
We switch into our regular vehicle and we’re off to Ouarzazate. It’s about 11:00 and we should have been on the road about an hour earlier… Our route takes us through towns with names like Tinejdad and Taghzoute and Tinghir. At Tinghir we detour to Toudgha El Oulia, a gorge that is part of the Ziz river system.
The gorge. These picture don’t do this vista any justice. It really is pretty spectacular.
There is a lush valley full of agricultural endevours.
Zoomed in to the far side of the gorge.
Next we stop to see Todra (Toudgha) Gorge, a spectacular river canyon (wadi) in the eastern part of the Atlas Mountains. The deep sided canyons walls were carved out of the limestone rocks by the Todra and Dades Rivers. There are a series of gorges but the one we’re at is seen to be the most dramatic. It comprises of the last 600 metres of the gorge as it goes through the Atlas Mountains. The canyon narrows here, with the gap as narrow as 10 metres (33 feet) wide, with sheer and smooth rock walls up to 160 metres (525 feet) high on each side. We’re in the dry season, so the river level is very low. During the high season, the canyon isn’t accessible.
We hit the road for final push. Sometime close to 6:00 we needed to take a break and made our way to Ksar El Kabbaba in Skoura to get in a bathroom break, but when we arrived, is was no answer at the door. That’s odd because it’s a hotel. Instead, our team heads to nearby Kasbah La Datte d’Or (another hotel) and we use the facilities there. We arrived in Ouarzazate at 6:30 but our hotel is another 30 minutes away in Ait Zineb.
Typical topography on this leg of the drive. The Atlas Mountains are in the background. Eventually we will cross over this range to get to Marrakech.
The hotel is set up to caters to foreign tourists traveling in tour groups. Buffet breakfast and buffet style dinners are included in the price of the stay. The room is nice and we have an upgraded suite to spend the next two nights.
Our outside deck.
We get settled into our room and organize ourselves for a dinner around 8:00, which is at least an hour after the dinner buffet begins. When we get there, most of the buffet offerings are empty or highly picked over. Clearly none of the warming trays or dishes are being replenished. We do manage to find enough food to satisfy ourselves, but it’s really not as appealing as any of our other meals to date.
Then it’s back to our room to get ready for a 10:00 start to see what Ouarzazate has to offer.
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