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After a few Hamman treatments (in places like http://www.riadmehdi.net/) we were pampered out. The final port of call before leaving was to check out the markets (Souks). The main items being sold were carpets, spices and leather. In fact it’s quite common to see guys still wearing traditional leather yellow slippers.

Purchasing items is all about your ability to bargain. In fact it seems to be part of the game to try to rip off tourists. Not surprisingly on Saturday we found ourselves cramming our packs with loads of slippers of various colours and leaving with new appreciation of Moroccan bargaining skills.

Come Tuesday night I was starting to feel a little rough from the unwashed apple I ate while in the desert. Waking up Wednesday morning Susan wanted to walk around Marrakesh but my plan involved sleeping and hanging out by the toilet. We did look around a bit of the city but eventually ended up getting massages in a day spa

On Thursday we decided to take a city sightseeing bus round the city. But after I kept falling asleep on the bus Susan had enough. She dragged me into a hotel to get seen by a doctor. Sure enough the doctor was fine about it. He had probably seen it all before.

After riding the camels back to Merzouga we were meet by our driver Jamal. Amazingly he drove the 10 hours back to Marrakesh with only a 30 minute lunch break. Susan and I were getting pretty worried about him towards the end of the journey. Unfortunately his English was virtually non existent and our Arabic was minimal at best. We tried to speaking to him a little but then Susan got worried I was distracting him from driving.

Anyway in the end we arrived in Marrakesh okay. Only problem was that Jamal didn’t know where we were staying. Fortunately plenty of local seemed keen to help and when we asked them how much it was cost they said “No money free”. Sadly once we got back to a Riad we found it was a scam and suddenly our guide had a lame leg and he expected £7 each for the 10 minutes it took to get us back to our accommodation.

Unfortunately this was one of the downsides of our trip. Morocco is a poor country that the French seem to have exploited for years. As we drove out into the country people were selling fossils on the side of the road at almost every corner. It wasn’t till later that I appreciated that for many of these people it was the only source of income for their family or community.

We also found we were constantly getting lost on the way back to our Riad (which was a bit out of way). Young kids would say hi, trying to help get us back for a charge. We soon found we needed to keep our mouths shut so people wouldn’t know what language we spoke. We also quickly developed our a ability to say “Leave us alone” and “Get Lost” in Arabic

Camels
Yesterday evening around 4pm we meet up with our Camel trekking guide, Hassan who was an ex nomad. He introduced us to our camels and they were duly named Humphrey and Bogart. Mounting a Camel is pretty easy, they sit you hop on and hold on tight as they swing forward and backward a little to get to their feet.

Riding them is a different matter. There’s a weirdly smooth rocking motion with but this is coupled with a jutter at the end of the motion that reminds you that your jaw is only attached to your face by a few tendons.

Hassan walked in front pulling my camel (Bogart) by the nose, which in turn pulled Humphrey and Susan along the dirt track out of town. After 5 minutes of our trip I soon realized I wasn’t going to take any photographic masterpieces while rocking along so I decided it would be best to move to the Tommy Gun photography approach.

We soon approaching the dunes out of town as couple of Range Rovers whipped past. Hassan soon was sharing how the noisy 4WD are a real problem for his people as they ruin the dunes. About 1 hour later the sun started to go down. We stopped to watch the most amazing sunset. I was torn between just admiring this amazing sight that God had made and taking loads of pics.

Perhaps it is more noticeable because the sun is the only source of light in the desert but it was very remarkable how quickly the sun was setting. Within about 20 minutes the moon was clearly visible and stars were starting to break out of the dark navy blue horizon. Hassan seemed undaunted but did start to pick up the pace to get us to our campsite before dark.

Life as a Nomad
Dusk was almost over as we came over the ridge of a large sand dune and the clusters of Berber tents. There were a few different families all with campsites within walking distance of each other. It seems they all setup camp using the sand dunes to create a bit of a valley to provide shade in the midday heat and protect themselves from the frequent sand storms. Also their locality meant that their goat skin tent was the only accommodation for the next 2 hours.

I got the feeling Berber family we where staying with were happy being Nomadic and viewed tourist’s as a necessary inconvenience. They were nice enough and made us veggie tajine for dinner but they wanted to keep to themselves and fair enough. For dessert Hassan gave me an apple which was great but with lack of hand washing facilities in the desert I probably didn’t peel it carefully enough and paid dearly later in our holiday.

Hassan, Susan and I spent the evening chatting; it was interesting to find out that his family used to be a nomads living close to the Algerian border but they had moved into town to try to earn money. During the height of summer (when the tourist season is at a low) he spends most of his day digging up fossils to cell. We conceded there was now way we could survive the 50 degrees C temperatures he was used to and he decided that -20 degree C temperature we experienced in Norway would kill him. Hassan also told us about how a number of friends of his who were tour guides ended up marrying Japanese women and moving to Tokyo. I couldn’t help imagining a guy who’s idea of rush hour is a two range rovers wanting to cross the same dune as his camels of the Japanese subway.

Living in the Desert
After dinner the natural repercussion was that Susan needed to goto the toilet. Unfortunately even long drops are luxury in the desert. So the reality that Susan would need to dig herself a hole in the sand wasn’t exactly met with ecstasy. It also didn’t help that while I was keeping look out for her I thought I saw a fox. This cut short Susan’s toilet visit and seemed to help her to hold on until we go back to civilisation the next day. Opportunely the only wild animals in this particular area of the desert were the occasional fox and desert rat. Particularly as I couldn’t help thinking how a snake might enjoy snuggling up to me under my blanket as it got cold and dark. As sunrise began (around 3am) we were woken by our Berber families’ roster, who was trying to complete with the neighbouring families roster. As it crowed for the next 3 hours I couldn’t help but think about how chicken tajine would have been much more satisfying last night.

We started the morning with a quick look at Todra Gorge. Unfortunately it had been raining for the last 3 days which is pretty major for this area of the country which is used to an annual rainfall of 30 mm. Adding to this the 300m high red rock cliffs either side of the narrow passage (10m at some points) was disastrous for the little stream running next to the road.

So arriving in this area we found roads almost completely washed out with silt and power lines knocked over. In fact we couldn’t drive through the gorge as we had planned because the huge reinforced concrete road had been washed away in parts. Still we managed to have a good look around at the amazing cliffs by simply doing a bit of river crossing.

On the way back to our van Susan had to goto the toilet but unfortunately hadn’t banked on all the toilet’s being Moroccan style. This basically involves a hole and two “pad” areas to put your feet so you can line yourself up. Hygienic Susan wasn’t too keen on squatting and we both agreed that it must take some proficiency to use these toilets wearing a djellaba.

The rest of the journey to Merzouga was still a challenge. As we left one town we came to a block in the road due to what seemed to be a new 3 foot lake. The police where only letting tractors and large trucks cross but it seemed our driver was a little fearless and deciced to floor the van and hope for the best. Amazingly water didn’t get through the van doors or floor the engine so we where soon on our way to Merzouga.

While in Merzouga, our tour guide was quick to get us dressed in traditional Moroccan caftans and took us for a tour of his garden which was out by the river and to a museum. The museum turned out to be a carpet store so we spent 15 minutes or so explaining to the lovely shop keeper that carrying a carpet back in our packs would only be an inconvenience.

We have been traveling by van for almost 10 hours today. However spare a thought for our driver who has done closer to 15 hours.

We are traveling to Merzouga to go Camel trekking. We were going to stop by Dades gorge but severe flooding in the region means we are in a very nice 4 star hotel at the end of a very long straight road somewhere quite remote. Okay I have no idea where we are.