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Published: February 29th 2008
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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. Once we had finished we went next door to our Hotel La Source and sat on the roof and had tea and discussed our trip.
We hadn't eaten all day so we sat down and had a Berber omelette which was made inside a tagine dish. It was delicious and my only complaint was that it wasn't filling enough even though it did
Mini Bus From Efoud
Next to me were the tins of peaches, behind us vegetables and in front of people and toilet rolls. come with a basket of bread.
We went for a walk around the tiny village and found that there wasn't much there. We found a shop and bought a big bottle of water which was normal price and not a rip off like Rob expected. We stumbled across a pen that had four camels inside. We called to them and strangely enough all seemed to pose for the photo Rob was taking. As we walked we saw more and more pens of camels all being fed and saddled ready for the afternoon's trips into the desert. The local children kept on running up to us and asking for a caramel or dirhams. We shook our heads and held out our empty palms but they insisted on following us and repeating their demands. It worries me to think how many people have been here handing out money and sweets to the children. They're obviously not going to attend school if they can get stuff for not going.
Back at the hotel we were introduced to a German couple who were coming on the trip with us. We gathered our belongings and went out to load up the camels. We
got the two mangier camels at the back of our caravan but after closer inspection ours should have been happier because they weren't being led by a rope through their noses like the other two.
The walk out to the camp was not the most relaxing of journeys. The camels followed each other in a line but they kept on slipping in the loose sand. You sit in a makeshift saddle on top of the hump of the camel and you can feel every movement of the camel. We spent about two hours on the camels, although I could have led the trip because we followed a trail of camel poo the entire way.
Because our camp was one of the further ones we passed numerous others before we got to ours. We weren't exactly what you would describe as being completely alone in the middle of the desert. The camp consisted of three Berber style tents and one hut that had a room for us to sit in. We arrived at camp just before sunset so Rob and I picked out the biggest sand dune nearby and ran to climb it. You wouldn't believe how hard it
was to climb, especially the top bit. Rob had to drag me up the last bit because as soon as I put a foot down it just slipped further down with the rest of the loose sand. We perched ourselves on the top ledge of this amazingly high dune and sat down to watch the sunset. The weather was anything but perfect but somehow we lucked out and got a perfect sunset.
Back in camp we sat down to wait whilst the Germans made their bed up outside and eventually sat down for some Berber whisky which we drank too much of. We chatted amicably about our respective travels around Morocco. The German couple went to great lengths to tell us that they were traveling only using local buses which made us laugh because we have to rush back tomorrow so their chauffeur can drive them to Rissani for another trip.
Just as it was beginning to get a little nippy outside we were called inside the hut for some warm food. We tucked until I realised it had chicken in it and then had to stop. I was pretty annoyed because only a few hours earlier I
Berber Omlette
this was fantastic had been assured that it would be vegetarian and therefore hadn't taken any food with me. We finished off with a bit of fruit and some conversation before the German guy called it a night.
Our night time wanderings begin with a search for the perfect toilet location. Other camps had toilet tents but our guide Omar, condemned them because they leak sewage into the locals water source. The moon was ever so bright and lit everything up enough to see quite far away but with no great detail. I found a perfect spot and sent Rob to check out the mysterious shapes looming on the dune. It turns out that the shapes were blankets that our camels had lost when they were let loose.
We had to make sure that we didn't wander too far away from the camp because in that light it was easy to miss-see things. We wandered around and climbed a few dunes and Rob got very impatient telling me that everything I spotted was a bush rather than another person. We did almost walk into a group of camels that were loose amongst the dunes. We followed them for a while and
froze every time they looked at us.
We eventually decided to go check out our beds. It was warmer than I anticipated but we hasn't accounted for the fact that it sometimes does rain in the desert. Our tent was slightly patchy and so in the heavier bouts of rain we did get dripped on. One thing that cheered us immensely was the sound of the Germans returning to their tent after giving up their attempt to sleep outside under the stars.
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rach
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awww looks sooo pretty, wait till the sand storms are coming then maybe not so much JImi hendrix did look very cute. Did they spit much then? xx