The Sahara

We spent the day traveling through the Atlas mountains to arrive at Elfourd ,which sits on the cusp of the Sahara Desert.

The desert is not what I imagined, sure there are sand dunes, but its not all sand..there are areas where there is water,therefore cropping; the Atlas mountains border it, so there are villages and towns in the valleys; the road winds around a very narrow corridor through mountains and flattens out ( but not widens!) to flat stony landscape. The buildings made from mud bricks with straw, ( called Adobe) generally two storey and walled in, almost blend into the background, as it's hard to differentiate the color.

We arrived at our accommodation - a mud brick kasbaah-styled hotel- to a group of singers and musicians to welcome us. We pulled in late afternoon and while looking around, Andrew discovered the quad bikes...well that was it...both the guys were for it..they had a fantastic time hooning around and over the dunes away from the hotel. Luckily they had a young guy with them..firstly to keep them from turning it into a macho contest (trust me they're just like they were thirty years ago!!- always trying to outdo each other). Secondly, so they could find their way back (admittedly though we weren't in a rush to see them...in the middle of the desert they were useful to have close by!!)

Welcomed by singers


Boys will be boys!!!

The following morning we had an early start(4am!!) to catch a ride out to the dunes to see the sunrise...the further out we drove it beacme more obvious that we were indeed in the desert, the Sahara desert at that..unreal in a way, pretty exciting when we stopped to think about it.

We got to ride camels led by the guides, to where we sat on the dunes and waited. It was so much fun, the guides were great, full of humor and entertaining, quick to stir us, and fill us in on on the Berber lifestyle. We got to play dress-ups, have our photos taken (time and time again, as one guide was in love with the camera) and savoured the whole experience :)

Laughs on the Sahara

I have included this link of a Moroccan map ( use it to trace our movements-Tangiers, Chefchaoen, Fez,Elfourd, Ouarzazate,Marrakech and Casablanca) because we spent ten days traveling through the most incredible land, full of diversity, sitting in the van and watching through the windows as the scenery rolled by and really words just don't do it justice

Just right click on the icon and open