On the Brink of the Sahara Desert

So my final major adventure in Morocco was to take a two day overnight desert trip from Marrakesh to Zaroga. Despite Marrakesh being quite inland and near the desert it is still quite a trip to make it to the desert. This is because the atlas mountain range is in-between! So on the day of the trip we were up bright and early and the caravan was packed and on its way by 8:30 am! Most of the day was spent driving as we crossed the mountains, but the sights of the mountains and the desert on the other side was well worth it. We stopped several times to take pictures, stretch our legs and get some food here and there. Towards the evening we finally made it to our final destination just outside of Zagora Morocco. Zagora is probably only a couple hours from the real Sahara desert (but after many hours in the car we were not complaining about stopping here), and already the landscapes around us resembled much of what one would expect from a desert with dry barren landscape, an occasional oasis, sand dunes, and of course camels!

Our first major adventure in the desert was to ride the camels into our camp sight for the night! This proved to be a fun and unique experience. While I cannot say I prefer camels as a mode of transportation I will say that it was fun and I would do it again! By the time we made it to our camp it was night time. Once at our camp sight we made ourselves at home for the night in our Berber tents! The Berber people are the locals of the region. That evening our Berber hosts fed us and provided us with entertainment by signing around a camp fire (it gets plenty cold at night in the desert, so a fire was appreciated). That night a bunch of us tried sleeping outside under the stars. While I have heard a lot about how great the stars look from the desert I will admit I was not overly impressed. I have seen much better in northern Minnesota, but that was probably because a lot of dust from the desert was in the air obscuring the view. By the end of the night basically all of us ended up back in the tent as the temperature continued to drop. In the morning we could finally see what was around us and it was a neat sight. Sand dunes in almost every direction, and the general rough landscape of the desert surrounded us. After some exploring in the area and a quick breakfast though it was time to hop back on our camels and begin the trek back out of the desert and then the car ride back to Marrakesh.

SAISers in the Van to the Desert

Atlas Mountains

Town along the route!

Desert Oasis

Our Camels await!

And we are off!

On my camel

Our place for the night

Inside of our tent

Eating with our Berber hosts

Music at the campfire

Sunrise in the desert

Exploring the sandunes

More sandunes

Getting ready to head back

Once we made it back to Marrakesh we had an evening to relax and find dinner, before we needed to head back to Fez. That night we took a night bus back to Fez. In the morning we had a little time to go into the old medena in Fez to get some food before heading to the airport and flying back to Italy to complete the Moroccan adventure!