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Published: January 27th 2014
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Time to delve harder into the heat! It was near 40 degrees celsius / 100 fahrenheit in Marrakesh alone but I wanted to see the desert and sandy hills and to be honest I like the heat. I dreamed of oases and camels and lovely hidden dancing maidens. Marrakesh was a good start point to know the Moroccans. The hospitality was great. As in if they knew you a little bit you could pretty much just pay what you wanted (at my hostel). Be cool and everything was halal!
The call to prayer chants would come at dawn and at dusk and they were beautiful. I mean the dusk ones were; at dawn I wanted to throw a sandal at the chanter. I found the tour I liked best and booked it. Then my posse joined. It was the Russian, two French Canadian girls and moi taking the desert bus to unknown adventure.
Up early with the chanters we climbed east through the Atlas mountains. We kept climbing and climbing after the valley of Marrakesh. Many archaic villages lined the way there. After a couple more hours at roughly the halfway point between Marrakesh and the Sahara lies the
fortified city of Ait Benhaddo. They filmed Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator there. I did my gladiator pose to pay homage.
On we went. Next were the outskirts of the Sahara. The air was clean, hot and crisp. The palms were bright. In the early evening we came to the camel station. We could go no farther by road. The desert took over and camels were our mode of transport.
There they were; the cuddly cute camels waiting to whisk us away! They are really grumpy but very sweet once you get to know them like many people I know. They were beasts of beauty. I had grown up riding horses so it was somewhat natural to mosey along on them.
It was surreal to be cruising across the golden sands of the Sahara as the sun was setting. I had my music in my ears and I was riding to the rhythm as we got further into the wild sand land. Another moment came to where I had to pinch myself at my luckiness to be where I was and doing what I was doing.
When we got to the huts they had set up
for us I felt like I was going to collapse of the long journey. But the locals had prepared a delicious dinner again for us and they invited us to the communal tent to eat. I had my "bon apetit" and ate like a hungry hippo.
When it became dark the people from the nearby dwellings and friends of the guides came out. We lit a fire. Many people had instruments of some sort. Boris, the Russian had his guitar to jam on and somebody threw me a Moroccan drum known as a Ta'arija.
We played under the moonless night. There was no sense of time. I would lay and look at the bright stars and doze off. I awoke and the fire was lit the stars were still bright. I got up and beat on the drums, many were still dancing. Trancing. I was in love with the night. With the desert. With the openness.
It may as well have been thousands of years ago. With as much as I had seen that day and done and with the sun rising above the dunes I crawled through the sand to sleep in my tent.
We
woke to Arabic cries of "Hiella!". "Lets go". Mhmhmmphphhh. I didn't want to leave. On that mini-trip into the desert nature ruled again and overtook my senses in its power and rawness. The desert was like an ocean.
Again I was becoming naturalized with the land and people. I recall we were at lunch on the way back. I received a bony portion of lamb and my friend Boris a juicy great portion. I asked him to share and he wouldn't. Just at that point the host of the restaurant walked to our table and asked how it was.
I said like how I felt. How we are trained never to do in American culture. I said it sucked. There were more bones than meat and it was irritating to me. Without a word the Moroccan host nodded and walked off. My European friends looked at me. Had I gone too far?
A minute later he returned with a giant portion of juicy lamb. Bigger than Boris's! "Ha Russki, the Americans win again!" I boasted as I primitively devoured my meat. This was an example of being forthright which was very well respected in the Arab culture and that I found refreshing. It was the best meat I ever tasted.
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