Way to HK - Morocco Part 3

25 Mar 2017 . category: Travel . Comments
#WayToHK

Camel Trekking in the Sahara

The moment had come for us to get on our camels! They were all tied together, and we basically hopped on one at a time, with the camel being coaxed upward soon after. It was generally much more stable than I expected, as there was this metal frame that we could hold onto. Though aside from a couple rocky down-dune parts, it wasn’t super necessary. I will say that riding the camels was supremely uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it’s because I didn’t find the rhythm or sitting position or what, but I was pretty sore the next couple of days. Here’s a picture of me on the camel, bundled up to as to minimize the sand blowing onto my face:

The journey to our camp took a bit more than an hour, at a pretty slow pace. The men leading the camels were walking instead of riding over the dunes, so that should give you an idea of our speed. Given the discomfort, I was pretty excited when I saw the first camp peeking over the dunes, especially as it seemed so nice, with a red carpet outside and everything! But nope, that wasn’t ours. We had one more false start like this, which was especially sad because it had for some crazy reason started to rain. And then, the rain even briefly turned to hail. I’m not sure what weather God we offended, but it was quite the experience. We asked the guys at the camp that night how often it rains there, and we were told basically never, so I guess we were special. After all, how many people can say they were hailed on while riding camelback through the Sahara? There was even a rainbow!

We finally did make it to our camp, which looked altogether shabbier than those we had passed, but I didn’t really mind. Given the price we had paid, I wasn’t expecting luxury or anything:

We dismounted just outside the camp. Here’s the camels after we got off:

Those black spots that are all over the sand would of course be camel droppings. Despite the comfort, the ride was truly beautiful. I definitely had an image in my head of what the dunes would be like, and it was basically perfectly realized. Surrounded by swirling sand dunes on all sides and rocked by the camel, just like I dreamed it! All kidding aside, one of the most beautiful things in nature I have ever seen.

Camp was basic to say the least. There were no toilet facilities to speak of, which though not really a problem, seemed like a bad idea given that there were easily over 100 people there. Each tent was basically a frame covered on all sides with thick camel blankets (note: not waterproof). In ours there were six beds arranged one next to another, with almost no space in between. I felt relatively lucky even to have this though, as some folks ended up with basically nowhere to sleep due to overcrowding or something? A group of Chinese tourists seemed to have slept sitting at the tables in the main tent.

After exploring the dunes for a bit (or in Albert’s case rolling down one), we returned to the main tent for a communal tajine dinner, followed by some haphazard entertainment of drumming and singing. People generally dispersed after that, some to sleep, some to watch the stars, some to just hang out. We stayed around and met some folks from other tour groups, many of whom were German. It turns out that there was some crazy $50 plane ticket for that week, so loads of Germans had decided to visit Morocco (they were all on the same flight).

Sleeping that night wasn’t super fun, though the rain did eventually stop which was nice at least. Some things I learned from my night in the desert:

• Damp camel wool blankets do not smell very nice
• It gets ridiculously cold. I slept with four layers (the last of which was a jacket) under the thick blankets, and still woke up every thirty minutes freezing.
• Sand gets everywhere! By the next day, sand was in my hair, my teeth, my backpack, all my pockets…everywhere.

But again, given what we’d paid for everywhere, we sort of knew not to expect luxury, and we had the whole next day on the bus to catch up on sleep after being woken up at 5AM so that we could catch the sunrise as we rode back toward Merzouga. A couple from our group had paid a bit extra for nicer, more private accomodations for the night, and apparently there was even a super luxury option where you had your own private bathroom in the desert. Of course, the way we did it was the most #authentic. As for riding back in the morning, I honestly thought the dunes were a bit more beautiful around dusk, but watching the sunrise over the Sahara was still pretty cool. My best attempt at an artsy shot after getting back to Merzouga:

Back to Marrakech

From there, it was basically a straight shot back to Marrakech, driving all day aside from lunch and rest stops. As I said, a great chance to catch up on the sleep we didn’t get the night before. After arriving back in Marrakech, some of us from the tour grabbed dinner together on the main square and then said our sad goodbyes. It really was a fantastic three days with a wonderful group, all of us were sad to be done.

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