Tuesday, November, 26, 2019
From Ouarzazate-Mergouza: Discovering the
Western Sahara:
We awoke at 6.30 after setting our alarms for 7.00 am for
breakfast. This too was beautifully laid out in the dining room. There was
Danish pastry and Pain de chocolate, there were Moroccan pancakes (eaten with
apricot jam and honey), there were salad veg and fresh fruit and OJ with
coffee. I had the coffee today. After a significant breakfast, we were
ready to set off for our camel ride into the Western Sahara, for we were off to
Mergouza, the farthest point in Morocco that borders the Sahara dessert.
Driving to Mergouza:
There is nothing to write home about in terms of the landscape of
the interior of Morocco. It is extraordinarily dull and drab—the dominant color
is yellow with the occasional shrub thrown in. It can also be exceedingly
boring, these long drives...so I was grateful that I had my music and it was
playing constantly. I did not have my laptop or else I could have been
reading—but I had left it in my stroller as we were told to put together a
small overnight bag for the night in the camp.
Stopping at the Todra Gorge:
The monotony of the morning was relieved somewhat by the stop we
made mid-morning at a place called the Todra Gorge. As its name implies,
it is a narrow pass between towering sand colored stone mountains. It reminded
me a bit of the towering gorges at Zion National Park in Utah. This was just a
photo stop as we climbed over low rocks to the river’s edge to get pictures of
ourselves with a flock of black goats in the background.
The entire stop here was no longer than fifteen minutes and then
we were on our way.
A Stop for Lunch:
We made a stop for lunch in a rather rustic shack where Abdul who
was seated at our table suggested we order the goat as it is native to this
region. On the way, we could see flocks of black goats. Llew and I decided to
share the goat tajine which came with vegetables and the chicken tajine—also
served with olives, prunes and preserved lemons and served with bread. We had tiny
sweet clementines for dessert but I soon realized that the abundance of orange
juice I was drinking was causing me severe acidity as it is pure citrus acid.
By the end of the day I was truly uncomfortable with acidity and have decided
not to down any more of the fresh OJ.
Taking Group Pictures in Berber Costume:
The Atlas Mountain region is home to native desert communities
called Berbers—a name that comes from Barbarians or people from the Barbary
Coast. Through the decades, they have joined forces with various human influxes
to protect their native homeland and habitat. They are a combination of Arab,
Spanish, Jewish and Roma ethnic forces and they live a very colorful life in
the drab environs of the arid Atlas Mountains. They have their own distinct culture
characterized by a language, costume, forms of musical entertainment and dance,
foods and local customs. Our guide Abdul is a Berber, although he lives in a
part of the Atlas Mountains rather removed from our route.
We made a stop at a large shop which provides tour groups with the
traditional costumes and jewelry of the Berbers and offers a picturesque
setting outside filled with date palms where pictures can be taken. All of us
were suitably attired and then we trooped out to get some pictures taken. The
sun was much too strong and none of our pictures came well—there were simply
too many shadows. Still...as a sort of game, it was fun and a welcome stop as
it was a chance to stretch our legs.
Then we were back in the bus and proceedings further eastwards
penetrating deeper and deeper into the desert. The land became more arid with
every mile we covered—the landscape getting really sandy and desolate with
rarely a shrub in evidence.
A View of Ancient Canal-Digging:
Abdul stopped our vehicle about an hour later to enable us to view
an ancient form of desert irrigation that was all about digging canals about a
thousand years ago to channel water from a river or spring to neighboring
fields. Needless to say, that form of salvaging water is defunct today but it
meant that we saw the rather primitive wheel-pulley method used to bring water
to the surface. Next, we were led down about twenty steps into the caverns of
another subterranean irrigation system that was once the mainstay of life in
these regions.
About another hour later, we finally arrived at Mergouza, the base
in which we would stay while enjoying the camel ride that would take us deep
into the Western Sahara region of Morocco. Our hotel was literally on the
edge of the Erg Cherbi Sand dunes. It was called ..... and it was such a
strange structure, sand-colored, in the middle of the dessert.
Off to Ride the Camels:
This hotel was just a base for our ride into the sand dunes atop a
camel. There was hot mint tea awaiting us and when we used the facilities and
refreshed ourselves, we were told to leave our strollers behind and take just
an overnight bag into the camp.
Then began one of the more memorable parts of our travels—the
chance to ride a camel in the Western Sahara for a couple of hours to get to
our camp—tents really, in the middle of the dessert.
The camel ride was a caravanserai of five camels all strung
together and led by a young chap who was also the keeper. Having been on a
camel many times before, I was familiar with the drill and remembered that
getting off and on it is perhaps the most challenging part. We were placed in a
string of five camels each and, therefore, divided into two groups. It was
quite uncomfortable especially when we had climbed a dune and had to get down.
The pace was slow and I was put in mind of the camels on the Grand Silk Route—I
cannot imagine how many months it would have taken to leave from Xian in China
and across the Hindukush Mountains to get into Central Asia and the fabled
sites of modern-day Uzbekistan (Samarkand and Bukhara and Tashkent and
Khiva)—incredible!
We stopped about 45 minutes later to watch the sun set behind some
dunes. It was rather overcast—which did not give us a clear sunset. But it was
romantic in the extreme to sit in the absolute quiet of a Moroccan twilight
enjoying the complete stillness of nature but for the sand buggies and motor
scooters that are offered to sports enthusiasts.
After the sun dipped behind the clouds, we got back on our camels
and proceeded onwards to our camp site for the night. The ride was inordinately
long and our butts were really sore by the time we got off.
Camping under the Stars of the Western Sahara:
It was such an interesting experience to camp in the Western
Sahara. I had thought that our camp site would be basically tents with dual
sleeping bags. Imagine my surprise when I saw a full sized double bed with a
wrought iron bed head! It had a full size mattress and thick blankets and
looked very welcoming. Basically all we did was drop our things off and go
outside to sit in the community area where we enjoyed drinks (mint tea) and
roasted salted peanuts.
Dinner at the Camp Site:
At 8.00 pm, we were led into the dining room area where tables and
places were properly set for our sit-down meal. Once again, we started off with
platters of Moroccan
Salad served with bread: tiny pieces of tomato and cucumbers with
olives in a vinaigrette dressing.
This was followed by a tajine of beef with dried peas and beaten
eggs that was really very tasty and eaten again with bread. This, Abdul
explained, is traditional and very simple Berber food. Dessert was a plate of
fresh fruit—bananas and oranges. And that was it! It was not fancy but it was
filling and good. Most interesting of all was the experience of it! How often
in one’s lifetime does one get to dine out practically under the stars of the
Sahara Desert?
Entertainment Under the Stars:
Then followed the entertainment part of the evening with a group
of Berber folk musicians pulling out rather basic drums and seating themselves
in a group. They lit a massive fire in the center (which was very welcome as it
was really cold) and invited us to join in the dancing. The other tour group
had also camped at our site—we were about twenty folks, the other group led by
Aziz. It was Abdul and Aziz who led us in dance. The whole group got up to
enjoy the entertainment and we had a lot of fun as we stretched our legs and
let our hair down. There was a traditional song they were singing in the
background in Arabic and it had a rather catchy tune.
This singing and dancing went on for about an hour—by which time
we started fading and decided to return to our tents.
It had been a most interesting and unusual day but we were ready
to call it a night!
A Bientot!
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