No Regrets!

After enjoying our Fès hotel breakfast of eggs, potatoes, pastries, and the ubiquitous yellow melon, we got piled into the bus for the long drive south to the Sahara. Mohamed said the drive would be about nine hours. It was a cool, clear, beautiful morning in Fès, a nice send-off for us.

As we made our way south, trees gradually disappeared, replaced by desolate scrubland. Then scrubland and hills started to give way to higher mountains that our roads had to wind around. After were about a mile in elevation, things began to level off into rugged high plains.

Mohamed told us all about the history of Morocco, the Berbers and Arabs, the Spanish and French colonization. He explained how Moroccan skin color changes noticeably from light in the north to dark in the south, yet there is no racism here. I find that remarkable. It seems like most places in the world carry some degree of racism, yet somehow in Morocco, with different religions and a variety of skin colors, there is integration and respect for everyone. Morocco should be a model for the rest of the world. Mohamed privately admitted that there are derogatory words for certain groups of people, but apparently it’s nothing too serious.

A quick stop in a little oasis of a town called Ifrane for walk around. It’s very green, a cool breeze, birds chirping. The steep roofs on buildings hint at the snow that comes in the winter and give the town a German or Swiss feel. A pretty stop and a nice break from the heat.

After Ifrane, the mountains became more impressive, more massive, more rocky, more barren. Angled and folded Layers in the mountains tell a story of massive tectonic activity millions of years ago. Scenery is not unlike the Mojave desert in southwestern US. Nomadic shepherds, flocks of sheep, and the occasional miserable donkey dotted the landscape.

Nine hours on the road today… I can only imagine how treacherous this journey was for the first explorers on foot or on camels or on horses. This journey really gives you an appreciation for how remote and inaccessible the Sahara really is.

Sitting on the bus for extended periods would normally be ideal for catching up on blogging, but it turns out I can only do it on the straightaways, not on the bendy and bouncy parts. And there are a lot of bendy and bouncy parts today. The ride is not an issue for Kristen, who sits in the front seat with her two laptops and propped up phone and has created a little command center. I feel like she puts in a full day’s work every time we’re in the bus.

When we stopped for gas, I used ChatGPT to help me figure out the cost of local gas and determined it was USD$5.05/gallon. Not as expensive as I thought, given the remoteness of this gas station, but Mohamed explained that when the average income here is 1/10 of what it is for us at home, the relative price of gas is extremely high for locals.

Past some tiny villages and more mountains before the ground leveled out to desolate flatlands of scrub and rock at about 3200 feet. Finally, the golden dunes of the Sahara became visible in the distance. We made a quick stop for everyone to pick up a headscarf, required for visits to the windy and sandy Sahara. I also picked up a little trilobite fossil in the shop. It turns out marine fossil and meteorite souvenirs are a big industry in this area.

Due to what I chalk up to amateur driving, our bus got stuck in the sand as we approached our desert hotel near Merzouga. We all had to get out and push. It was 105° F when we finally arrived at our hotel, Auberge les Dunes D’Or. It’s an impressive property, though it feels deserted (pun intended). Our little group may be the only people staying here. The pool was green with bugs happily swimming in it, but refreshing nonetheless.

As the sun set, we headed out for our camel ride into the Sahara. Perhaps a bit corny and cliche for our group to put on headscarves, hop onto camels connected by ropes in single file, but it was a fun experience. Everyone really enjoyed themselves, taking selfies with one hand and desperately holding on with the other along the way.

Even more special was getting off the camels at the top of one of the dunes and feeling the surprisingly cool sand of the Sahara between my toes. Silky and smooth and uniform and flowy. So this is what it feels like.

Sunset was a bust, with rainclouds in the distance obscuring the view, but the late evening sky turned the sand from golden to chai latte and then to milk chocolate.

Lindsay and I are both competitive and have a light-hearted competitions to see who is faster, so I thought racing to the top of a sand dune was called for. We tied. I took a sand sample for my collection at home before hopping on the camel and heading back.

At dinner in the hotel, Mohamed got real about some of Morocco’s social problems and corruption in government and sports and drugs. Good talk. Then an impressive drum performance by some of the locals. We were invited us to play along with them.

After dark, Lindsay and I went out to look at stars in front of the hotel. Clear band of the Milky Way crossed the sky. Mohamed caught us and recommended we go out back and climb the sand dunes to look at the stars, so we did. The air was perfect and the sand was cool beneath our feet. Lindsay and I laid down on a blanket to look up. A downwards facing third quarter moon silently rose over the sand dunes on the horizon. Saw shooting stars, made wishes. Local drummers in the distance helped make it a truly magical, timeless moment. Then cats being murdered or having sex (hard to tell the difference) pierced the silence and a terrific gust of wind kicked up some sand up into our faces. Our night was over.

Tomorrow, a Land Cruiser desert adventure and then off to Todra Gorge.