For Thanksgiving break 16 teachers/friends and I embarked on a journey to the Saharan desert. Since we had a car load and had a long journey to go, we rented a large tour bus to drive us comfortably. It was clean and randomly had green turf in the alley way. Definitely added to the Moroccan touch. Our bus' name is Missouri Voyager. I felt just a little closer to home :) The little girl in the picture is a student who was amazed to see a huge bus picking up all the teachers at the school. She was confused as to why I was so excited.
We hired a tour guide to plan our trip and the first stop in our journey was in Fes. This is now my 2nd trip to Fes (read earlier blog about background information).
For this trip we stayed at Riad Salam Fes.
Apparently it won an excellence award from Trip Advisor. It was a very beautiful Riad complete with many Moroccan salons (sitting rooms), spacious outdoor lounge area complete with a pool and a terrace that we unfortunately were only able to enjoy for 10 minutes before we go asked to leave.
Our tour then took us to the top of Fes. As I've said in the earlier post, Fes was once the capital of Morocco many many years ago and once held the largest population at one point in history. The first university in the world was here in Fes and we learned that it was started by a woman!
Right after lunch we hopped aboard Tour Bus Missouri and drove 9 hours to Meryzouga. We passed gorgeous landscapes that I didn't even realize existed in Morocco! Morocco has such diverse landscapes. From rolling barren hills to snow capped mountains to desert...
We arrived at our Kasbah late at night, so we quite couldn't make out the landscape. However, judging by the barren, desert road that the bus' headlights were displaying, we knew we were somewhere out in the middle of the desert. This Kasbah was called "Nomad Palace" and it by far exceeded my expectations for a riad out in the desert. This place is called a Kasbah because it has walls that surround the palace's large suites, courtyard, huge dining hall and pool. 
When I woke up in the morning, I ran to my window to get a sneak peek at the Saharan Desert. I literally shrieked :) I crossed another adventure off my bucket list.
The plan was to chill for the day at the Kasbah before we ride out to the sunset on our camels. A few of us couldn't contain ourselves and had to go on a mini adventure into the desert. Now I've walked in sand before, but these wind blown sand dunes were pretty strenuous on my calves. 
Even though we only walked for an hour, we all commented on how the dry climate made it more difficult to breathe than what we're normally used to. Our heart rates were more elevated than on an average hike in a non-desert climate. Another misconception about the desert is that it's always hot. Surprisingly the temperature was around the low 80 degrees with a drastic decrease of temperature when you step in the shade. As we were walking, we saw many footprints. We were inferring to which animals these footprints belong to. It was fun to investigate their stories.
This is a very poisonous flower that will apparently make you blind if you touch it and rub your eyes afterward. 
We saw many barren and broken-down structures that we assumed couldn't have been too old. The structures were made out of sand, hay (not sure where they found that material), rocks and some form of cement. By the amount of individual rooms, some were large enough to be homes. We saw many wells (apparently the Saharan Desert has a HUGE underground water table), home made furnaces and one-room homes. Besides that, the desert was empty. We only saw one other human being and he was walking his bike through a make shift trail in the sand. Couldn't make out where he came from or where he was going. 
One of the teachers, an avid music enthusiast and punk rocker, found out that a neighboring town (20 mins walk away) has a African music group that plays Gnawa music. We all decided to go check it out and along the way a lady was crossing our path. Sh spoke English and told my friends that she left Europe years ago to visit this year and hasn't moved back since. She was walking in our direction to her friend's house to have lunch. She told them that she lived 3 hours away. When my friends caught up to me to tell me this, I quickly turned back around to observe her wearing a long djellaba and carrying a bulky bag. My jaw dropped thinking that walked through the desert for 3 years wearing that and all just to have lunch. Wow, I couldn't complain about our 20 minute walk after that. Life sure is different. I'm so glad that I'm having this experience to view and listen to other people and their cultures. The Gnawa band members each had a set of krakebs (cymbals) in each hand and each played a different beat. The beat was fast and fun. Not only did they make music, they were dancing around and seemed to have an routine dance down. 
After awhile, they came and made us get up and dance with them! It was truly a fun experience.
Just a little taste of some local Gnawa music :)
On the way back from the neighboring town, he passed by some of the homes. The simplicity of these homes were unbelievable...until I saw a TV satellite nestled in one of the gardens. 
Once we got back to the Nomad palace, we all packed a small bag and set out to meet our camels!! A few of the teachers rode ATVs, but the majority of us wanted the full "desert experience" and opted for the camels. Once we laid eyes on our modes of transportation, I instantly recognized that these were no camels, but dromedaries. The difference? Dromedaries have one large "hump" compared to a camel's 2 humps. The humps stores up to 80 pounds of fat that can break down into water and energy when in a vital state of need. Isn't it crazy how they bend their knees to kneel? There were many new things that I found interesting about these creatures. The picture of the dromedary below is Fayrou and we became quite good friends throughout the journey. Fayrou was 2nd in command in our string of 5 dromedaries.
Riding the dromedaries was much similar to riding a horse; however, just at a much slower pace. Interesting fact about camels/dromedaries: unlike many other animals, they move both legs on the same side of their body at once. They were very calm and obedient. Each "string of dromedaries" had a Nomad guide (as they referred to themselves as) that walked the entire way. Right when the sun was about to set. We got off our dromedaries and climbed this HUGE hill in order to have the best view. 
I believe the view was well worth it. You can see in the picture below that some girls in the group couldn't contain themselves and just had to roll down the sandy dune. She said it was quite exhilarating besides the fact that sand got everywhere! Once the sun set, it immediately got chilly.
This picture to the right shows the vast landscape of the Moroccan Saharan Desert. You can see that the desert doesn't extend much further. Beyond the sand dunes, there is a low-lying area where we would camp for the night. Not more than 30 km past our campsite was the border of Algeria. This made all of us just a bit uneasy.
That night we camped in a make-shift campsite. There were a total of roughly 10 tents with 4 cots inside. The tents were side-by-side forming a circle. In the center of the circle we had a large camp fire. There was also a larger tent for eating and lounging. We had a filling Moroccan meal complete with adult beverages. The Nomad guides played Darbuka drums, sang songs, told (really corny) jokes and urged many of us to get up and dance. We then ended the night with staring into the bright sky that was filled with glittering stars. It was absolutely breath-taking and I hope to relive that experience again one day. I had never seen the stars so brilliant and bright before.
Early the next morning, we were awaken to see the beautiful sunset. It was difficult to wake up so early, but it was totally worth it.
We rode our dromedaries back to Nomad's Palace, backed up our belongings on the bus and set off for home. We drove and drove and drove stopping through Ouarzazate, which is known for being Morocco's larges film-making location, then the steep pass through the mountains heading towards Marrakech. We stayed the night in Marrakech, but unfortunately wasn't able to see much (so a trip is in the near future!). This was a wonderful Thanksgiving trip and I highly recommend the 2 day journey to the desert.
