Morocco - Monday 7th May

After breakfast in the hotel, which was probably the worst we had in Morocco (stale crepes and brioche) we drove towards Tinrghir and the Todra valley. We ended up in the Todra gorge which is pretty breath-taking, a little road has been cut through and we walked between these massive cliffs which apparently are like Mecca to rock climbers. We also came across a herd of little goats from a nomad tribe that had brought them down to drink at the stream, they were little cuties. And Lou showed off her bargaining prowess in purchasing a Berber scarf for the half the advertised price. Result. (and then left Hamish to pay with his smallest change being 3x times what she bargained it down to...awkward).

We hopped in the car, destination = the desert. We were both pretty excited, with not really knowing what to expect, maybe we thought Richard Attenborough would pop up somewhere?

But on the way we got another great surprise, we stopped at the market in Rissani and Iddir bought us desert scarves to use as turbans and we got a quick lesson on how to put them on, pretty awesome. He also picked up some fresh meat and vegetables from the market and took us to his sister’s house in the village where she cooked us up a traditional Moroccan meal which was delicious. Her family was there and they didn’t speak a word of English and they seemed to be engrossed on the Mexican soap opera that had been dubbed over in Arabic, which made for a very weird lunchtime experience!

We had a kind of pizza thing stuffed with vegetables and spices, followed by a chicken tagine, more khobz and fresh fruit. As they don’t normally use knives and forks, they use the bread as their “utensils” which means you end up eating a hell of a lot of food! Iddir's sister taught us one word in Berber which meant "eat more". And not wanting to insult our host we kept eating. And eating. And eating.

We left waddling out the door but really excited about what we had just done.

We got to our hotel where we left our bags and had some more mint tea before getting on our camels. It was pretty uncomfortable to be honest, and it was hot! But the scenery was absolutely stunning, as far as you could see it was just golden sand. We trekked for about an hour and a half before we got to the twin dunes which were towering over the rest of the dunes. We got to our little base camp and then the guide suggested we climb the dune to watch the sunset. This seemed like a great idea, it was honestly the hardest physical we had ever done on holiday. Every step you took up I felt like you were going 2 steps down. It was hell! But we got there and it was simply beautiful. Amazing. Got some great photos.

Our Camels - Bob Marley and Jimmy Hendrix

The way down was a breeze! The part of the desert that we experienced is called Erg Chebbi, one of Morocco's two Saharan ergs – large dunes formed by wind-blown sand. The dunes of Erg Chebbi reach a height of up to 150 meters and altogether span an area of 22 kilometers from north to south and up to 5-10 kilometers from east to west.

Our guide cooked us up an amazing feast, probably the best meal we had in Morocco. Hamish was still feeling sick after lunch but Lou got stuck in. We had another tagine but this was more lamb based with peas and had egg baked on top, so delicious. We were so tired but our guide wanted us to listen to him singing with the bongo drums, and then really awkwardly wanted us to sing a traditional New Zealand song. I hate it when they do that, we have no cool traditional music. We ended up with the national anthem as Lou didn't know all the Maori songs Hamish learned in primary school. But after that we made a hasty retreat to our little tent with just carpets as beds.

All was peaceful until….

Highlight: Too many today! The traditional lunch, the sunset in the desert, and the meal under the stars.
Lowlight: Being way too full after lunch, like uncomfortable full and then having to sit on a camel in the heat.
Interesting Fact: During the warmest part of the year, Moroccans come to Erg Chebbi to be buried neck-deep in the hot sand for a few minutes at a time. This is considered to be a treatment for rheumatism. And they must be crazy as the temperature reach about 55 degrees Celsius.