Morocco, Part 3

Todra Gorge.

Day three, and it's time to focus a bit less on the cultural and architectural side of things, and a bit more on the glories of nature.  We drive a short way up the Todra river to park in the famous gorge, where I drag Chris on a six mile hike up the side, around, down, and along the river.  It is certainly very impressive, reminiscent of the Grand Canyon but if anything even bleaker, at times the terrain resembles photos I've seen from Mars rovers... pretty hot even in mid-November also, nonetheless we make it around and down, returning to the river in time for some lunch.  This time we're back to salad, then the main is a Berber Omelette, chopped vegetables with an egg or two poured over, once again cooked in a tagine.

The route along the river is interesting too, with a network of irrigation channels through the fields allowing crops of various kinds to be planted, while olive groves and date palms seemingly grow wild.  Again managing to avoid being sold carpets and so forth, we get back in the car for a long drive East and South to Merzouga and the edge of the Sahara.  At this point our lack of a working satnav - it still hasn't charged, looks like there is no current through the cigarette lighter - becomes a bit of a problem.  I have a map on my phone, but navigating around on the small screen is not easy, and we end up getting the route a bit wrong.  Ironically, the police close a road and direct us on what is actually the correct way, but we stubbornly go wrong again... it is 8.30 or so before we reach the Kasbah Erg Chebbi, where at least we can get some food, and even a warmish bottle of rosé.  I am starting to get a bit tired of the 'typical meal', here it is salad, again, chicken tagine, again, and fruit, again.

In the desert, you can remember your name...

The next morning, we have arranged with the hotel for a 10am start out in the desert for a full day and night of camel riding and who knows what.  Shame there is no hot water as I reckon I need a shower before heading out - well, a cold shower it is then.  A quick breakfast - the usual bread, jam and so forth - then we head out to meet our mounts.  I've never ridden a camel... the way they kneel to let you mount is cool, the way they stand up back legs first, tipping you forward alarmingly, isn't so great.  We have no reins, rather a home-made looking metal handlebar at the front, with the camel pulled along on a rope by our Berber guide.  Initially I find the downhill sections quite tricky, especially when my camel decides to kneel down unexpectedly... eventually though I figure out that leaning back is the way, and I can pretty much dispense with the bar.

The desert is an amazing place to be sure... a landscape sculpted by the wind, dunes rising to sharp crests then dipping like waves, into another dune, and yet another, stretching to the horizon which is itself formed from mountainous piles of sand.  Our camels make their way up, down and along the dunes for an hour or so, then groups of tents start to appear, initially these form square blocks around a courtyard, clearly related to the riads and kasbahs we've seen.  Then over a ridge, there is a cluster of single tents, and we are led towards one.  And asked 'when do we want lunch?'  It is only 11:30 or so but there is not obviously anything to do here, so I suggest midday, at which our guide looks a little disconcerted.  12:30 then?  You are supposed to be the guide old boy, how about just tell us when it will be ready?  We do at least get some tea and some nuts, and so while away an hour or so, investigating the area which seems to be a Berber camp, complete with a few donkeys and what I assume are at least semi-domesticated pigeons.

Dunes at sunset.

Lunch arrives, and, yay, another 'typical meal'.  More salad, another Berber omelette which is basically the salad, warmed up with an egg... and of course fruit.  One of the younger locals sets up a display of various little camels, allegedly locally made... we buy one each, no way to avoid it really.  And then our guide tells us he'll be back to take us to the oasis - which is fully two hundred metres away - at 4pm.  It becomes clear we should really have opted for the trip starting at 4, but never mind.  I have a go at 'dune boarding' - somebody has left a snowboard near our tent - but dragging it up a big dune in the desert heat is too much.  Instead I leave Chris, and my shirt, to take off on a hike through the dunes, up and around the oasis on the biggest one I can see.  It uses up an hour or so and does give a feel for being out in the desert with no water - I don't see any mirages though.  We then take a tour of the dunes on camel back, which is kind of fun I must say - one day I have to ride one with actual reins.  Then we're abandoned again, with the suggestion that we climb the big dune to watch the sun go down.

Well - it is very pretty I must say.  Can't help but feel that this day is turning out to be not quite as packed with excitement as it might have been though... sun having gone down we head back to the oasis, and again the guide seems to want us to pick a particular time for dinner.  Screw it though, I am not eating before 7pm.  We drink some more tea and generally chew the fat, in a little tented area that we have all to ourselves, with blankets spread on the sand there is clearly room for many more.  Looking around, the entire oasis seems to consist of such places, all better equipped than ours though.  Dinner arrives, and isn't too bad - yes, it's the same again, but at least the chicken tagine is less chicken and more an interesting assortment of veg.  We get joined for dinner, not for the first time, by a cat... otherwise it is just us though, and indeed after dinner our guide puts a couple of candles in one of the tents and says, 'you sleep in there'.  OK... not quite sure what idea he has got here.  Can't say I want to go to bed at 8pm, and certainly not in the same tent as Chris who, I hope he doesn't mind me saying, snores a little.  I move some of the blankets to a tent on the other side, and then we wander around the oasis looking for something to do.  There isn't much... we peer in each of the other tented areas, many of them have fires going and in several cases there is drumming and 'singing' going on - often tourists drumming away while their guide sings or indeed takes photos.  It does seem odd that there are each of these little places, with only two or three tourists in each, why not combine their resources?  Moreover, why have we been left to our own devices?  Well, dammit, these people have a fire, we shall too - I've been using a long stick I found to feel ahead in the darkened oasis, don't want to walk into a camel by mistake.  So, we return to our tents, and I break up the stick and burn the thing - the heat is quite welcome as the desert in November gets a bit chilly at night.  You get a good view of the stars mind, and we spend a while trying to take photos of them before reaching the point where sleep may be possible.  Not that sleeping under a pile of hairy blankets is going to be that easy - though, on the plus side, sort of, we do have to be up at 5.30am the next day!

Luxury accommodation at the oasis.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.