To the Dunes! : Desert tour May 28

We woke up around 6 to get to the agency in the city center by 7. We were a little late and there was nobody there, but it turns out everyone was just late. We paid for our tour and got on the minibus when it arrived. There were about 15 people on the tour from all over the world. It was crazy how we all managed to get along with so many languages floating around the car.

We fell asleep for a while and woke up in the middle of the Atlas mountains - the Tichka. It was beautiful! We took a little break to take pics and get a snack and it was just crazy how much different scenery we saw. There was everything from desert/cactus to waterfalls, snowy mountains, palm trees, and mini forests. We drove on and took another break at a real bathroom and happened to run into Isham who was leading a different tour to the desert that day.

We drove quite a bit and stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant and giant Kasbah (old city center like a giant sand castle). A guy was charging entrance but we told him we didn't know if we wanted to go in so he let us in for free since we were "nice girls". We eventually went back to pay him after wandering around for a while, but he was doing his afternoon prayers.

Then, we continued on to meet the camels on the edge of the real desert. We had 3 camel trains for all of us and 3 berber guides to go with. Megan and I named our camels Elfie and Gertrude. Let me just say it's a weird experience when a camel stands up for the first time. They do the back legs first so you feel like you're going to be thrown off the front. Yikes! We rode a few hours into the desert to meet our camp - a big Berber tent where they would make us dinner over a fire and teach us traditional drumming and dancing. Unfortunately, the bathroom tent had blown away in a desert storm the previous week. This wasn't so bad at night because you could just wander away from camp and find a sand dune, but in the morning, it got a bit awkward. I spent some time with the camp leader - Mohammed, who told me all about the values and principles of living in the desert. He also gave us new names. I am Fatima and Megan is Latifah and we've been called that by everyone ever since. Anyway, after a chicken tagine, tea, and vegetables, we all sat around talking before the Berber men started drumming and we all talked and danced in the desert until the early hours of the morning.