Day 3 of Marrakesh - Sahara - Fes Tour

Day 3: Dades to Merzouga on the edge of the Sahara Desert

This day brought us through another scenic river valley next to the city of Tinghir where the majority of dates are produced for local consumption and export. Indeed, we saw mile after mile of date palm farms.

Then we wound down the Atlas mountains into the town of Merzouga at the edge of the Sahara Desert. We checked in to a giant hotel with just us as guests! We presumed everyone else was in the desert camps, but we could see that some of the desert camps were just over one dune from us...not far!

While I'm sure many of them provide a nice ambiance, the square tents huddled against each other around a central opening did look a bit staged. If we didn't have such little kids with us, it would have been worth a try, but I think the advice to stay in a hotel was just right for us. We dumped our bags in our room and headed out back to meet our camels for our prearranged camel ride.

The boys felt a mixture of apprehension and unease, but shortly we were all laughing and they were exclaiming it was fantastic and they loved it. Mounting was a tenuous affair (Christine's camel started standing up before she'd gotten her whole leg up!), as you lunge backward then forward as they unfold their long legs. Our camels were tied together in a string and led by a traditionally dressed Berber handler. It was quite a fun adventure! Adam and Thomas each had to ride with an adult and this certainly made riding a little more challenging for the parents, but still loads of fun.

After enough of a walk to get us into the dunes and out of sight of civilization, we dismounted and had time to run up and down the dunes. We cavorted and sprinted and rolled and sprawled and dove...some of us more than others. The sunset was casting everything in a golden light.

From the top of the dunes, you can see out to the hotels and buildings of Merzouga; a town that has sprung up to service the tourist trade. In the other direction, it was steep peaks of the dunes as far as you can see. In the valleys between the dunes, all you could see was sand and a few scraggly plants hanging on. As you run across the dune, you can see the sand cascading downhill from each step as you unbalance the carefully stacked grains of sand.

It was peaceful, stark and vast. We road back to the hotel, slowly becoming accustomed to the halting gait of the camels. Just after dismounting, the moon began to rise over the dunes just as the sun set over the palm trees around our hotel. It was mesmerizing to see the moon looking so brilliant and massive over the dunes. Sadly, though, it meant we would not get a chance at good stars that evening. Soon it was time to shake the sand out of our shoes, eat dinner (you guessed it...tangine!), play some games, and head to bed.