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Published: February 16th 2010
SAHARA Day 23
I arrived in Rissani at 7am and was picked up by the land rover to drive me out to the hostel in the desert. The sun was rising and it was beautiful to see it through the palm trees. I arrived at the hostel, Les Hommes Bleus, and it was really amazing. It was exactly how I had pictured Morocco. My room was huge with its own sofa. The whole building was made out of clay and hay. They made me some breakfast, which was something between a pancake and a naan. It tasted like a pancake but it looked like and had the texture of a naan. It came with honey and jam and was really good. I also had some freshly squeezed orange juice. After breakfast I went for a nap since I hadn’t slept much on the bus in.
After I woke up I went for a wander around the desert. I hiked up a few dunes and it is really hard to fathom that it is really happening. The whole time I just kept thinking ‘is this really happening’ it is an incredibly surreal experience. I ran into the camel man
and asked him if the camels have names. He told me that they all have names and that the white ones name is Jimmy and all the rest of them who are brown have Arabic names. I found this incredibly funny.
When I got back to the hostel the staffs were having a jam session with all the drums and Moroccan instruments. Another hostel guest was doing a portrait of the impromptu jam session and the picture was really amazing. His name is Brian Macgregor and he is from Georgia. His work is really good so I am interested in checking out his website to see his other stuff. After the jam session I had lunch, chicken Tagine.
After lunch we loaded up the camels and began our expedition. I, happily, was awarded Jimmy as my camel guide. It is completely surreal to be riding a camel through the Sahara. I kept seeing the shadow of the three camels and kept thinking of the ‘we three kings’ Christmas song in my head. As we rode we could see the sun setting over the mountains.
After 1.5 hours of riding we arrived at the nomad camp where we
would be sleeping for the night. The tents were made out of camel wool blankets. Originally, the women would set up the tents and it would take at least 1 month to stitch all the camel blankets together to form one tent. We hung out in the tent while the camel man told us stories about the nomads and life in the desert. He has always lived with nomads taking care of the camels. We had some tagine, couscous, and vegetables for dinner.
After dinner we went to look at the stars… there were loads of them. After catching the stars for a while we tucked into our tent for the night. The next morning we woke up and went to catch the sunrise and then loaded back onto the camels for the trek back to the hostel.
I absolutely loved the desert experience of Morocco. If I could teleport myself into the desert and not have to go through the rest of Morocco then I would definitely go back but until that is possible I will not go back to Morocco.
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Cathie Lutes
non-member comment
surreal I can believe!
Oh,Katie I just love this part of your trek... so cool the shadow camel pics.... I'm in awe. How can absolutely nothingness (desert) be amazingly beautiful. You look so darn cute on jimmy by the way. That made me laugh too. Despite your ill experience in Morocco you got to see the real beauty.. Keep safe, Mom