Our Sahara Desert Odyssey

We said goodbye to our lovely hotel and pool in Erfoud and proceeded on to more adventures . We changed our bus to three 4×4 vehicles with very competent drivers. Before we headed off to the desert, we made two stops: one to see a fossil factory and another to visit a Berber lady who lives simply with her family.

Fossils in Morocco? Yes Prehistoric creatures lived here over 350 million years ago in a shallow sea that accumulated in the sea floor and were buried by sediment. Over the ages they were transformed into stone Devonian limestone, which can be seen in countertops and other items. This factory gets them from the quarries, polishes them and makes them into works of art.

And of course, we exit by the gift shop. These are precious artifacts, so I did do a bit of shopping here.

Our next visit was to a modest home of a Berber lady who described her life for us. This area is a ” different” Morocco, with only basic schooling and hospitals. The people here have no conception of a big city, unless they drive many miles.

Whenever we visit a household, we’re served the traditional mint tea. Normally the tea is made by a man, but this lady is a widow who lives with her children, so she makes the tea.She asked that her picture not be on Facebook, so I am respecting her privacy.

Her home consists of this main area, which is used as a living room and bedroom by night, as well as two other bedrooms and a very small kitchen.

We finally head off to the desert.
Ann and I are in a vehicle with Joy and Robert, and it is a wild and bumpy ride. At times we see no other vehicles and no roads, of course. How does he know where we are going?

We arrive at the camp. It is lovely, and much more civilized than I expected.

I feel like I am in a circus tent. It’s a funny feeling. The weather is HOT but much cooler than it was earlier in the week, in the low 100s.

There is also a shower; forgot to take photo. I was very happy to know that we have electricity, thanks to solar panels, There’s an indoor meeting area, shaded, and a dining room. OAT has another camp near by and the kitchen serves both camps.

We have lunch at the camp, then settle in for a few hours before venturing out late aftern to visit Mohammed, a former nomad who settled in to an area, found water, and created an oasis in the desert. He is completely uneducated but could teach a master class in gardening.

Our next activity was toasting the sunset. Sounded like a great idea. Mostafa lugged the wine glasses and we carried the bottles. The only problem? I didn’t know we would have to climb a mountain of sand to do it. Ann managed to get to the top; Mostafa helped a few of us – Linda from Florida and Andrea and me, bringing up the rear – to get to the second level. We were joined by young hawkers who wanted to sell us their wares. Mostafa uncorked my wine and carried a glass back up to Ann from our bottle. Mark joined us for a visit Andrea’s husband came down Joy and Robert were there.

It was quite the event, not to be missed.

We return to camp for a cooking lesson and a late dinner. The cook shows us how to make the tagine, with chicken on the bottom and vegetables on top. Our server says good night after we stagger to our beds. A few stay up to star gaze.

The next day we went camel riding, then visited a music school, did a little dancing, and visited a nomad and his family in his tent. Details will be forthcoming, possibly later today or in the middle of the night.

The birds are chirping and the sun is up. The weather will be nice. Another exciting day is about to begin.