Blogs from Merzouga, Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco, Africa - page 4

10 Sep - an all day drive through the spectacular scenery of the Middle Atlas and High Atlas mountains as well as the cedar forests before arriving on the edge of the sand dunes of the Sahara Desert in the village of Merzouga. En route we stop to see a pack of hungry (and extremely lazy) monkeys on the roadside. By the time we check-in to our auberge and climb the sand dune behind our rooms we have missed the sunset but it's still an amazing sky. The landscape of the reddish-pink sand dunes, interspersed with greenery is completely breathtaking. We are completely in the middle of nowhere in the heart of berber land (the nomadic people of Morocco). Dinner is followed by impromptu live berber music and singing in the auberge courtyard by the berber ... read more

Who would have thought that it'd be hot in Africa's Sahara Desert in the summer?? Somewhere, somehow, Peter and I neglected that minor detail when we set off with our little, rented Renault. Holding tight to our budget, we also neglected to investigate the car rental personnel's look of curiosity when we said 'no' to the more expensive car, with A/C. It's difficult to explain how hot +50 is, but the best way, is to sit in your oven right before you put in the Turkey... a convection oven would be perfect...the ones that blow the hot air around. As a matter of fact we discovered that closing the window is actually better than keeping it open, further proving that convection ovens do work better, as with the windows closed, it took us about half as ... read more

We woke this morning and waited with another English guy for the hotel owner to take us to a minibus which would take us to the desert. The minibus was massively overloaded with things on top and inside the bus. There were also twelve of us getting a lift but being the only westerners we were stuck on a bench at the back of the minibus. We were dropped off at what we were told was Hasi Labied but what actually looked more like a collection of clay mud houses. I had been told that there was nothing in Hasi Labied other than hotels, so I had assumed that they would be more modern and western buildings. Anthony's hotel was right next to ours so we went inside with him and sat down for a tea. ... read more

Woke up early in the morning for the sunrise. Was disappointed with the view of the sun rise guess I was expecting something different again, all what I saw was the sun rising from a dune and then saw the sun rising from another dune it was really useless. I think what’s important is to see the sun rise from the horizon and thats not what I saw. I kept walking up a dune and noticed there were 3 more bases in the adjoining valleys so I wasn’t quite alone in the area. We didn't have breakfast and we started to move to see the other villages. It was quite painful to be on the back of a camel but I couldn't be asked to walk. By this time I was a little tired of the ... read more

The guy at the reception told me that there is a tour for 2 nights 3 days where they did the two gorges near Tenehir and the Marzhouga desert which was costing Dhm1050 or Dhm850 without a camel ride. The French couple was doing it and they required a 3rd person. Even though I heard from the French couple yesterday that they had met travellers who said it was good I felt the price was a little steep and could not spend 3 days on a tour. Instead I thought I will do it on my own. Woke up early as I had to catch the bus to Tenehir took a taxi to the bus station and bought a ticket to Tenehir, while in the bus I decided I can't be bothered walking through the gorges ... read more