Trip date: September 2023
We had a last quick breakfast in the lovely Riad Tizwa in Fes, before checking out and being collected by our private driver Madhi at 8am. Even though this was early for me, we were all super excited as today we were driving to the Sahara Desert! More specifically we were going to be spending the night in a Berber camp near the small town of Merzouga, which was about a 7 hour drive away.
Following the itinerary that we booked with Fes Authentic Tours our first stop was Ifrane. It was surprising to drive up into the Middle Atlas Mountains and see the fancy ski resort Michlifen; skiing in Morocco? Turns out that snow is common here at 6,900 ft between Dec and Feb. The town of Ifrane is actually referred to as "Little Switzerland" as the buildings were built in an alpine-style by the French who occupied the area in the 30's.
We had a quick walk around the tiny town and snapped a photo with the city's stone lion near the Hôtel Chamonix. Supposedly it was carved by a German soldier, who was held here during WWII in a prisoner-of-war camp, in exchange for his freedom. The sculpture represents the last wild Atlas lion, shot near Ifrane in the early 20s.
I bought a mix of sweet and salty peanuts and candied ginger from a snack vender for the car ride and then we were back on the road. The land became very flat and arid right out of Ifrane, but soon we were in an area lush with cedar trees and a large population of Barbary macaques! These are tailless monkeys that live in small groups on the ground.
The endangered species is already extinct in other parts of Northern Africa. Unfortunately there have been problems with poachers in this area and many are taken and sold as pets. There has been a lot of movement to protect these monkeys recently and hopefully their numbers will continue to rise; we saw babies which even 2 years ago was very rare.
As we continued our drive, we were leaving the Middle Atlas Mountains, which run primarily north and south, and crossing the high plateaus. The scenery was really interesting and really bare. Madhi pulled over and pointed out a small scattering of Nomadic Berber tents and pens made of scrub sticks for their herds. What an incredibly tough life that would be.
There were a few spots where we just barely crossed into the very northeastern tip of the High Atlas and the peaks were incredibly craggy, giving us just a small taste of what we would be driving through the next day!
For lunch we stopped at a roadside cafe seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It was obviously a pretty normal stop for tourists and others making the trek to and from the Sahara. Madhi left us as it was prayer time and we grabbed a table and some sticky menus. We weren't expecting much, and honestly my kabobs were fine, but Gail still talks about the "Berber eggs" she ordered, as one of the best egg dishes she has had!
Shortly after lunch we came upon the Ziz River and the Tafilalt oases. It's really a stunning site, even though our skies had turned overcast. Following the gorge are multiple walled kasbahs built among the thousands of date palm trees. This is the largest palm grove in all of Morocco.
At 5pm, 9 hours after leaving Fes, we arrived at the Palais des Dunes hotel in Merzouga. This tiny village in the Sahara Desert is the kickoff spot to Erg Chebbi, which are the huge red sand dunes that line the border Algeria.
We wouldn't be staying at the hotel but our suitcases and Madhi were. We would be staying at their luxury Berber camp in the desert!
We were escorted across the street to meet with our camel guide who, after tying our scarves around our heads for us, would be leading us on our 1 ½ hour ride. To be clear, these were Arabian camels, or dromedary, which have 1 hump instead of 2 (which are mainly found in central Asia).
Riding a camel is awkward and not comfortable, but it was an amazing experience! There were 5 of us total, each on our own dromedary, with the guide holding very loosely to the lead rope. Mine was in the front so I had pretty amazing views of the incredibly high dunes of powdery red sand.
Our guide was great, he was very patient with us and his camels. Sometimes he dropped the rope when helping one of the riders; I asked him if he worried the camel would walk off but he said that he'd had them for years, he treated them very well, and he knew they would never walk away.
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