Friday, August 14, 2009

Morocco Africa


The camel had no problems getting up with us on them
We had to hold on tight
Colton was introduced to his camel Mast-oot. They got along famously.
 camp in the bedouin village. We slept on these rugs under the stars. It was way to hot (38) to sleep in the tent.
We rode of 1 1/2 hours to our camp in the Sahara


Aug. 12-day 43
We have had a really busy last few days. We left Spain 5 days ago to come to Morocco. I wrote a really great page about our first few days in Africa but I lost it all so I will write about our last few days in the Sahara desert. We found a great tour company called Africa Overland tours. They picked us up at the Moroccan ferry. Our guide Abdullah showed up a few minutes late and for a few minutes we were a bit concered that he wouldn't come, but he did and it is all good. We all wanted to experience Africa by riding a camel out into the Sahara desert and sleeping out there for the night and so that is what we did last night. We started out by getting our kaftans and turbans on and were introduced to our camels. Miranda's camel's name is Jimmy and Colton's camel's name is Mast-oot. (LOL). We then hopped onto our camels and held on as they stood up. We were very far up. Miranda looked sooo cute up on her camel with her white Kaftan and her purple turban blowing in the wind. When I looked at our thermometer as we started out it was 38 degrees and it was 8pm. There was a bit of a sand storm happening as we started out but it soon calmed down to a nice breeze. We rode into the desert for almost 2 hours and finaly our bedouin camp came into view. We were quite ready to get off the camels and into the sand. Miranda and Colton ran up the sand dune like it was a snow hill. The kaftans did a really great job of keeping the sand off of us. The bedouins had prepared an area covered in Moroccan rugs and foam mats for us to sit on as they served us traditional mint tea and a supper of tagine (chicken, potatoes,carrots,zucinni and chick peas seasoned with safron. We were also given a bowl of Moroccan soup which we all love. The supper was served at 11 pm and so it was hard to eat very much. When we were all done our supper they brought us sheets and pillows and we all lay back and watched the falling stars as we had a glass of wine, till we fell asleep. During the night under the stars we heard the snorting and groaning of the camels and goats while hoping the big bugs we had spotted earlier would not come too close. At 3:30 am I woke to being a bit cool. The temp. had dropped to a very cool 19 degrees. After the 38 degrees the evening before it was amazing how cool it felt. We all woke with a bit of a start at around 5 am when a few of the camels nearby had a morning jog. We decided to take a long walk up the biggest dune (200 feet tall or so) to watch as the morning sun rose. After we came down from the dune our camel guide served us mint tea and once again we mounted our camels for the 1 1/2 hour ride back to our jeep and a nice shower before we headed back to Fez.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds like quite the adventure
Ann E

Rita said...

that is just too cool! What an adventure. I'm really enjoying reading about your adventures!

Karen L. Dyck said...

Oh it all looks so familiar and wonderful. I am so glad you guys made it there to experience that fantastic culture - too bad you didn't stay longer, but it looks like you had a great time!

PS I love that soup too!!!!!

Anonymous said...

wow! These are experiences you won't soon forget! Sounds like a story book.
Keep having fun!
Barb D.

Michelle said...

I love the pictures! You all look great. Hope your last few weeks continue to be as amazing!

Candice said...

Doesn't it all seem just a little unreal?! Great pics, and i love the colours in Morocco!