Magic in the dunes of Morroco

What I was looking forward to the most of coming to Morocco was a, for me unique visit to the sandy dunes in the desert of Morocco. Arriving in Marrakech I planned to travel up north via Meknes, Fez, Chefchaouen, Melilla(Spanish teritory) with destination Nador.
With the western Sahara - which actually does not belong to any country but very stubborn being claimed by Morocco - being too far to the south I had to search for different options. Luckily Morocco provides two alternatives for a visit into the golden dunes. I had choosen for the oassis of Erg Chebbi, close to the eastern border with neighbouring Algeria. I booked a three day excursion into the desert excisting of a two days drive in a mini-bus with many stops at kasbahs(castles which Morocco has hundreds of), Berber villages, interesting rock formations and other and other natural sights.
With my entrance into the mini-bus I became part of a 13 persons group excisting of a French couple an English couple an Italian/Polish couple, three Japanese travelers and two very mis-behaving Serbian Ladies. We were a nice group together, and that was good because we spent pretty much three days together in the bus as to reach our final destination, we had to cover about 700 kilometers.
Once outside Marrakech, in fron of us we could immediately see our first obstacle. The +4000 meters atlas mountains through which we climbed via minor roads and little vilages with the most beautiful views of the mountain tops and the valeys. In my last 5 years of traveling I have seen quite some mountain groups now. But each set of mountains is as different from the others as their names are! So driving through the mountains keeps me far away from taking a nap, or continue my interesting book. So dry and rocky as the atlas are, bit so different from for example The dry and red colored mountains of Gran Canaria.

Once arrived in Merzouga, with the last 45 minutes or so, covered probably less then a kilometer on a sandy road in the middle of the desert, I felt it was about time to arrive. The last 5 hours of driving became so boring with only desert to see all around you. All there was, was one straight layer of asphalt with every 20 kilometers a little bend in the road of perhaps 5 degrees either to the left or the right.
Ah! I almost forgot! There was more then that! I had to laugh when I saw a tiny little tumbleweed rolling past :)
But that was not the most important you could spot. Actually there were quite some tornados! First We had drive past a few before I really though it were tornados! It was pretty amazing to see that big construction of sand turning circles and bouncing left and right like the 'tower of Pisa game'. Not so strong but still at least 5 meters wide and Just a few hundred meters away from the road where we were driving! Marta M. would say: Que niiiice!
So with 10km/h we arrived in Merzouga. From where we pretty much straight away hopped onto the back of a camel. Having the camel standing uo wih you and his back was a tricky happening and it felt like being in a rollercoaster or probably even more the similar things coming to your town! But once the brown beast is on streched legs and walking, it was more like the little cars or airplanes in front of the shop in which you throw a coin and from which more annoying music is coming than that is is actually moving! Accept when it's moving down the dune(the camel ofcourse) then it was precise like a wild rollercoaster in a looping but at the speed of a fancy golf-kart.
Slowly wobbling, all in line we left Merzouga behind his climbing the first sandy dune and with the top also behind us there was only sand and our big hairy new friends to discover.
It was an amazing experience to be in such an environmet. And although probably everybody has seen a photo of the desert before, still it was such a complete new experience! I thought by myself: wow, the world again proved to itself that the nature can be so beautiful! Nothing hand made or humankind creation and that in a decenia in which we can make everything but everything! Today I ready that scientist reached a new milestone and have managed to create live via a computer! Soon we dont adapt a child, but we buy a living daughter or son online! You'd be able to design it's physical look and choose a character with a webbased library! But the dunes were impressive too :) and actually I noticed that everybody became quiet enjoying this amazing environment.


After 1.5 hours on the back of the camel, we arrived at our tents where we would spend the night. Being in a country famous for it's carpets, obviously our tents were made out of many layerd, indeed, carpets! A circle of about 6 tents. A very colorful patchwork creation.
Our hosts were setting up hhe place and preparing us a dinner, so in meanwhile we climbed to the top of one of the dunes to see the sunset becoming smaller and smaller and fading away. A beautiful moment in which you realise how fast the world is actually turning around it's axe. With the sun fading away, synchronized the sand actually changed it's color from gold to yellow and orange to dark grey or no color at all. So boring compared with before!
During this sunset, I glanced to the rigt seeing all me new friends sitting on the edge of the dune all in one row, quietly admiring this late evening show. I was so happy having decided to come here, that for me I was finished for Morocco :)
No, the next day was another camel drive back to Merzouga waiting for us and there was another two weeks of exploring Morocco.
It wss time to get back down and there were actually two surprises waiting for us!
First of all the getting down part. The dune was quite steep. Up was a heavy and long. And thanks to one of the scientific tv programs on discovery channel, I found aneasier way to get to the top. Once they did a research if it was possible to stand on custard. Basically your just drowning into it. But actually if you step hard on the custard, you kick out the liquid and a hard substance remains. It's similar on the beach, you see the water dissappearing from uou footstep. So that was my trick to get to the top, otherwise you would cocer half he distance of one step because you slide down again.
But now time to get down, which is the fun part! On our camel trip to the tents, I saw a guy who brought his snowboard! So I throught to use my fee to slide down like with waterskiïng without skies but that didn't work. But then I saw Masohiko, the Japanese guy running past so easily with big big jumps! So I start to run-jump as well and it was soooo amazing!!! Because of the wind, the top layer is very soft sand in which you slide away about 30cm so it is not hard to land. We could jump meters down without feeling it, and the 'lift-off' was so loose and soft, I am sure it would feel the same to run-jump on the moon! Like there was very little gravity. So much fun to run down!!! Kathy took a photo of me running down, I hope to get ot soon and I will upload it :)

Back at the tents we enjoyeda nice Moroccan meal; couscous au pouler. Amd as desert fruit with music! Apparently there 10 sets of tamtams so all together we drummed so e rythms, danced the beats and the Moroccan guys sang some bits! It was a wonderful evening full surprises. It was one of them you don't want to forget about.

After a little walk in the dark with a quarter moon and many bright stars I made a wish after seeing a falling star and fell in a deep sleep in or comfy carpet tents.

The next morning we woke up at 5.30, hopped onto the camels, drove to the next dune, climbed and and watched the sun raise. The world had turned 360 degrees in a few hours time. While the sun was raising, the dunes decided to change it's color back to the original again, and the shadows in between the different dune tops were slowly moving back to the valeys. Everything was getting back into it's original position. And although we are ery much self-aware, and can make or own decissions, still we are part of the nature and that ment alse time for us to move back to original position. Back into the mini-bus, back to Marrakech.


If you ever get the chance to make an excursion into the desert, don't think about it, don't hesitate about it, just go for it.

(Click here for more photo´s of this three day trip to the desert)