Morocco – Sahara Desert 21/10/16 – 22/10/16

Day 6
This morning after breakfast we were taken to Kasbah Myriam on the outskirts of Midelt. This was an embroidery workshop run by the Franciscan Nuns in an aim to provide employment and education to Berber women. It was now Friday and in the Islamic world Friday is a day of worship, however the manager was prepared to let us in. She told us the story of how the workshop came to be, ie she was a third generation ………
The workshop is in the grounds of a monastery, lovely simple church where the pastor spoke of its history. In 1996 7 monks were kidnapped from a monastery in Algeria and all but 2 were killed. 2 escaped and found there way to this monastery in Midelt, the sole survivor, now 92 lives here. He came out to meet us, what a sweet old man and we shook his hand with tears in our eyes. This atrocity was depicted in the film ‘of God’s and men’.
After this we hit the road again for our 5 hour journey to the Sahara Desert. The journey took us through scenery never seen by us before, it was stunning. We made several stops along the way at tiny villages until we reached the tiny Saharan Village of Merzouga with its magnificent backdrop of golden, orange and red colours all symbolizing the beautiful sun filled sand dunes. We stored our main luggage here and headed off on our camels with small back packs for our overnight stay in the Sahara Desert. What a journey this was, all 16 of us on our own camels riding through the sand dunes all in a line one behind each other, all with brightly coloured head scarves, all tied in the traditional Arab way. The sun had started to settle so the shadows it produced were mesmerizing. Our tour notes stated, “the Erg Chebbi dunes are the most stunning in Morocco and are an essential part of any trip to Morocco” and they weren’t wrong. Our notes also informed us that an Erg is a vast sea of shifting windswept sand that’s formed into picturesque, undulating crests and valleys. WOWZERS pure stunning, it raised the hairs on the back of my neck, my senses overloaded with sheer excitement. Then we reached our destination, a camp in the middle of nowhere, with 5 Bedouin tents, wooden framed and covered in woollen blankets. We all felt like we’re on the movie set for Lawrence of Arabia! The camp was situated at the foot of a large sand dune, so once unpacked we were encouraged to climb this. It took a while but once up there we sat and watched the sun set over the many many dunes. With each passing minute the colours of the sand changed so many shades of orange until it all went dark. Our guides made us a very tasty traditional soup followed by the best chicken Tagine ever with accompanying freshly made bread…….DELICIOUS. Then our guides lit a bonfire and treated us to an amazing show of Moroccan folk songs whilst beating away on their drums. Everyone of us couldn’t help but get into the swing of it so all stood and danced around the fire, jigging away to the beat of the drums, and in the background the camels were heard wailing as they were being bedded down for the night. A few of us pulled our mattresses out of our tents and threw them in the middle of the camp, surrounding the amber left by the fire. We lay there on our backs and stared upwards at the most magnificent star filled sky. Again such an experience, the stars, the solar system everything in such clear view as there was no light pollution and not a cloud in the sky.
The following morning our guide woke us up at 6.45am and after a short stroll we sat on the crest of a dune and watched the sun rise again. Beautiful. Then back on our camels, rode through the desert to where our larger bags had been stored and enjoyed a astronomical feast of a breakfast, before boarding our bus again to our next destination.