I Don't Want to Crap in My Pants!

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Geo: 31.63, -8

Our guides awakened us at 6:30 with the light thumping of a Moroccan drum; not all heard it, but they were eventually roused by the grunting of the camels! We did find out a bit of an explanation for the behaviour of our camels; apparently it's mating season, so perhaps they were just horny beasts.

Though everybody ended up on different camels, the guides ensured that Michael and I got back on our crazy camels. However, it only took about five minutes to calm them down today, not twenty like yesterday. I began to suspect that Mary had paid off the guides to whack me in the desert, with savage camels the weapons of choice.

Another hour of chafing, and we were back in Merzouga - during a discussion about the discomfort of camel riding, someone commented "It was bigger today, so I had to spread my legs more, and it hurt worse!" I'm not even going to comment on that one! Breakfast was at the guest house that was the starting point of our camel trek. Another typical Moroccan breakfast, but this time with some omelet wedges. An Aussie girl buttered one up, thinking it was a pancake!

Before heading off I did my business in the toilet, thankful that it was of the western-type, and not a squat one. I've been dreading using one because of a story Chad once told me - the first time he used one was in Southeast Asia and when he sized up the situation, he realized that he would very likely crap in his pants if he wasn't careful. As a precaution, he took his pants off and hung it up on a hook before attempting to squat.

When I first heard this story, I laughed until my stomach hurt and to this day, I still chuckle when I see a squat toilet and think back to Chad's little dilemma. But I am very grateful for knowing of Chad's trials and tribulations with squat toilets in Asia because otherwise, I'd probably end up crapping in my pants or all over my shoes any time I needed to use one, as I'd lack the foresight to take off my pants. I'd probably still crap all over my shoes, because I simply can't comprehend the geometry of how it's possible to do it without making a mess all over the place.

I quickly brushed my teeth before we departed, and the Aussie girl in shock, asked me "Do you normally use the water to brush your teeth??!!?" I had never thought about that up to this point, using it everywhere we have been - but she made a good point, as here it was the most basic of guest houses, so the water supply could have been of questionable quality. I later re-rinsed my mouth with bottled water.

On the road - it's nice to have a netbook while traveling, because I was able to do a bit of blogging as we drove. This didn't last long, as typing on the bumpy roads started to make me queasy, and I was concerned that the vibration would cause the hinge between the screen and the keyboard to break. The blowing dust was also getting all over the netbook. It's over ten hours to get back to Marrakech, so stops were limited to lunch and bathroom breaks.

Our driver kept playing traditional Arab music and when we pulled over for a moment to allow the driver to take care of something, Paolo reached over and shut off the stereo, commenting "No more Arab music for me for 10 years!"

The road back to Marrakech was very twisty as we descended from the Atlas mountains – our driver perhaps fancies himself as a grand prix driver, the way he was blasting through the curves. There were some pretty tight passes into oncoming traffic – Marianna remarked that she was surprised we survived the drive back to Marrakech. We were dropped off at the end of one of the pedestrian streets that radiates outwards from the Place, and said our goodbyes.

Back to the Riad – it was a long day and we were quite tired, despite not doing anything overly physical today. On the way there, we passed a mother and daughter that was staying in the same Riad as us in Essaouira. It's a small world while traveling in Morocco!

We only wanted a simple meal this evening, partially because we were getting sick of the typical couscous and tajine menus that are everywhere. Back to the same pedestrian where we were dropped off at the end of the tour – tonight would be a shawarma night. We finished up our meal and took a short walk through the Place on the way back to the Riad. It's been an exhausting few days, so we'll sleep well tonight! I wanted to leave some milk and cookies out for Santa tonight, but they'd probably only be eaten by those huge cockroaches we encountered a couple of nights ago.

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Photos

a
Sleeping in a Berber tent in the desert was surprisingly warm, despite some gusty winds that caused the entry flap on our tent to occasionally open up, letting in some wind and a bunch of sand. Picking sand out of your ears and from in between your teeth is definitely not a great way to wake up!

g
Despite the clouds, the sunrise was unreal - it was amazing how, for just a few brief minutes, the dunes were transformed from a light, dull colour, to brilliant and warm shades of orange and red. Most people missed the sunrise, as only a handful of us were outside to witness it. It briefly made me forget the crunchy sand that had found its way into my mouth during the night. I tried not to think about all the camel dung that littered the dunes and undoubtedly polluted all that sand ...

e
Like a painting - this photo of Helen is pretty spectacular. Mary and I wished that we had photos of us that were half as good!

f
Helen's picture, take two - interesting how using a different setting on the camera can completely change the look of a shot. I'd say the actual sunrise looked more like the previous picture than this dull one.

h
Not quite as good as Helen's, but it'll have to do.

i
My crazy camel. We'll call him Cameron, which has a much nicer ring to it than "Crazy Bitch Ass Camel Who Wanted to Kill Me".

c
The shesh is quite useful for not only keeping sand out of your mouth and nose, but camel dung as well!

d
As you can see, I still had no idea how to tie that thing, because I couldn't keep it covering my mouth. Notice how stiff I am on the camel - Mary thought I was scared the whole time, but I was just grimacing from all the chafing and trying to steady myself, keeping it from being too uncomfortable.

k
The cafe where we stopped to eat had prices of almost double what we had seen elsewhere, so Michael and I decided to just have a salad and grab some cheese and crackers at the little shop next door before getting back on the road. Part of it was because we were tiring of brochettes, couscous, and tajines, but it was mostly the principle - tourist gouging is not a nice thing!
It was an interesting salad - rice, onions, tomato, assorted veggies. We expected something simpler, but were quite happy with the meal.

j
Mary opted for vegetables and rice - quite the selection of veggies, it wasn't too bad.

l
We never ended up picking up any cheese and crackers, but instead I grabbed some chocolate biscuits and orange juice for the road. Both the cartoon on the package and the cookies themselves were pretty creepy looking ...

m
... but I still couldn't resist getting a little intimate with one ...

a
A little gift from Marianna and Paolo - while digging through her camera bag, she found some fragments of volcanic rock from Vulcano. I never had the time to visit the Aeolian Islands the last time I was in Sicily, but perhaps meeting these two Italian geologists was a sign to one day return!

p
The shawarma was only average, as it was filled only with meat and no vegetables. A selection of three sauces was provided - mustard, one that was a bit like sweet & sour, and a creamy one that was more like a traditional kebab sauce, though not quite.

o
It wasn't quite enough for me, so I ended up getting a second sandwich filled with merguez sausage. As we ate, some guy came up to us and started chatting - I suspected scam as I've always done here, but then he asked if we remembered him from Casablanca. Turns out it was a case of mistaken identity - I guess all us Asians look the same, since we haven't been in Casablanca yet!

q
Dessert - a coconut square. A little dry, it was only OK.