Camel Pains

We had an early breakfast on Sunday in the Palace before meeting up with our tour guide's Abraham  and Mohammed. After some quick introductions we were on our way out of Fez towards the south. Mohammed gave us a bit of an overview history and politics in the area (well in a rather broken English - but I think we understood). He told us that Morocco is the safest place in the world and that it is now our second country - so there you have it Canada you have apparently been usurped.

Our first stop was at this beautiful lake - which despite getting Mohammed to write the name down in English we still do not know the name of. None, the less it was really beautiful in the sunlight and was framed with large cedar trees.

The lake we don't know the name of. We shall call it Nameless Lake.

Our drive south took us through Morocco's High Atlas. This is a cool mountainous area which is locally known as the Moroccan Switzerland as in the winter it snows there and is used as a ski resort. In fact, this area is the King's favorite area to visit as he is a fan of snow sports and he has one of his largest palaces there. It really odd to think that you can have a ski resort so close to the worlds largest desert - and it really does become a desert shortly afterward. We continued through the mountains one some back roads and found some wild monkeys - they weren't very friendly so we went back to the main roads and found some who know that people = peanuts and are happy to come and sit nearby and pose for photographs (sorry Meg, I'm sure its terrible to have monkeys dependent on people for food sources). 

Sam and the monkey we named Joel

We continued south and saw some fantastic geomorphology (I don't think I've used that word since second year uni) the landscape changes so dramatically. One minute you are lush green mountains and the next minute you are in dry plains and the minute after that you are in different mountains where simply nothing grows its just rocks. What is really interesting is that nomadic people live all through all these areas in tents and caves, virtually where ever there is a water source. These people live entirely off the land and might make a little money from honey or there animals to pay for clothes. Most are completely illiterate and little knowledge of basic health care. 

A panoramic view 

We continued south ... okay we continued a long way south. I'm a bit of a fan of maps so here is the approximate route we took.

View Larger Map

We stopped off at a few different places along the way including the Valley of Ziz and at a Fossil Cooperative in Rissani and got to Merzouga at about 5pm. We didn't realize this when we planned the trip but we were booked to stay at a really nice hotel. It was made in the traditional style of the area but with all the luxuries (well many of the luxuries) of home. They boasted that they had recently had Hillary Clinton and Shakira stay. The hotel was right on the border of the Sanddunes and had fun running, playing taking photo's in all the sand. We took advantage of the pool, which I think we earned given that it was 44 degrees celsius and the car had no air conditioning. Turns out there is a limit to the heat that Kimilla can take - you just have to take her to the Sahara to do it, I think we blasted a couple of Edmonton winters out of her in just a couple of days. 

Sand Dunes in the Sahara

Mohammed and Abraham came and picked us up the next day and took us out exploring around the Merzouga region. It was kinda funny actually Mohammed (who could speak English fairly well) wasn't able to pronounce my name and preferred to call me Schmed, which I didn't correct him on - to Kimilla's delight. I got one back on her though when Abraham (who could barely speak any English) informed us that Kimilla in the local dialect literally mean's Camel. Our first stop was the local river - which was more of a dust plain than anything resembling a water body but there must have been some there cause they use it for gardening. They then took us through a small village and showed us how the local people grow food for themselves and how they water the gardens. It was fascinating, each plot is separated by small dirt mounts which form a small ditch which can be dammed at different points to flow water from the river to each of the plots. They grow fairly similar foods to what we would grow like carrots, tomato, peppers, cabbage, zucchini etc. The village is really small and everybody knew everybody so when we stopped upon a local man doing the gardening he was more than happy to give us a demonstration. His name was Mr Salm and he was delighted to inform us that he was "72 years old, with 10 children and I still do the vegetables myself". He was so happy and seemed so fit and active despite not even having shoes.

Mr Salm doing his vegetables

We continued on and one of things that became apparent was that the area really did survive on its own produce and whatever money it could get from tourism. It really did seem like the entire community was banded together to make everything work - as if there way of life depended on it. There were lots of nomads in this area and some of the children would make money by posing for photo's on the side of the road with desert foxes. 

Nomad Children with Desert Foxes.
Not everyone wanted to be in the photo.

There was also a community who were historically from Sudan who made money by performing music from there homeland for tourists. They played different types of guitars and drums and danced with little hand cymbals. It wasn't really our taste so we didn't buy the C.D. but was interesting to see.

Roots music from Sudan

Mohammed and Abraham took us to a few other scenic places before we stopped off for a traditional Berber meal. This was served to us at a nomadic house and we could see the border to Algeria from the front room.

Nomadic House where we had lunch

We were a little skeptical about the food practices but everything seemed kosher and they showed us how everything was prepared. The particular dish that they made for us is called "Berber Pizza", Berber being the ethnic group that all the people in the area identify with. The meal is a mixture of vegetables and cooked eggs baked into a loaf of bread. The trick is how they do it, rather than using an oven they make a fire on the ground and let it head the sand (which is already very hot from the sun), they then shift the embers and brush the area smooth before putting the break straight onto the ground. They then put a small lid over the break and put the embers on top so it gets cooked evenly on both sides. It was pretty tasty but might have had repercussions.

Mr Nomad making the Berber Pizza

We spent the afternoon relaxing at our hotel and taking advantage of the pool. In the evening when it had started to cool a little we started on a camel trek that would take us two hours into the sand dunes to a camp where we would watch the sunset and stay the night. However, this was called off about half an hour into the trip when I (Schmed) came down with a particularly nasty case of nausea. At first I thought it was the camels as they aren't the most comfortable creatures to ride and I'm prone to motion sickness, so I got off and tried to walk for a little - but I don't think it was the camels. I didn't even have the strength to keep up with the camel on foot. We ended up having to be evacuated by 4x4 out of the dunes and I had a rather unpleasant night expelling anything my body had consumed for the last month. I guess we had to get sick at some point during our trip and it was most likely going to happen when we were in Africa, but it was so disappointing to miss out on what was going to be one of the best parts of the trip - oh well. Not much can be done about it now. However, Kimilla did manage to get some really stunning shots of the dunes and the camels.

Camel on a Camel

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After a really rough night we then had to endure a seven hour drive back to Fez on some traditional African roads while having our ears assaulted by Moroccan dance music (think techno with middle eastern groans scales - for seven hours). I don't know what the road rules are in Morocco but in the Desert it seems to be get there as fast as possible and make sure you hit every pot hole. It was miserable but we got back without any drama. 

We are back at the Palace now and will be here all day taking it easy - while staying in close proximity to the bathroom. We leave for Lisbon early tomorrow morning but have a bit of a layover in Casablanca so wont arrive in Portugal till the afternoon.