We are parked in a campsite at Zagora. We arrived yesterday from Agdz on a good road with Palmeries all along the road giving us mountains on one side and lush greenery on the other. After checking in to this tiny campsite and ordering our evening meal, yes another tagine but delicious nonetheless, we went into town to book our trip into the Sahara. We found Omar, one of many guys offering trips of varying duration in 4WD or on camel or a combination of both. We settled on the one day trip in a 4WD and a camel ride in the desert, before arriving at the magnificent dunes at Erg Chigaga. On the way we passed herds of camel (camel herder on motorbike) a camel train and the abandoned oasis Sacre. Our driver, Mohamed, stopped at all the good viewpoints and pointed out the important features and even stopped at a well on the way back to water a half dozen donkeys. The highlight though was the dunes. The real Sahara. We arrived at the camp and Mohamed said lunch would be about half an hour. Explore the dunes he said but don't get lost. It would have been easy to do so. We clambered up a few of the larger ones close by but all the time made sure we knew which direction the camp was in. The only word to describe the desert experience there was tranquil. There's not a sound apart from the sand sliding down the dunes, blown by the wind, and when the wind dropped it was totally silent and it would have been easy to have lost ourselves in less than ten minutes. After all, one dune looks much like another really or at least they did to us.
The camel ride was all we expected it to be. We were told it was an hour's ride but, fortunately, that included the stop for breakfast and we only had to endure the experience for about twenty minutes or so. It's not so bad when they're walking on the flat but the up dunes and down dunes part is definitely not the most comfortable of rides. I don't want to be indelicate now and I don't know what my camel had for breakfast but lets just say that the after effects weren't the highlight of the day. Phil was riding her beast behind me and she wasn't too impressed either! We had to wear the obligatory desert passport and very fetching we looked too. I can now tie my own turban in both tourist and Berber style. Both of which are useful for pulling over your face when sat astride a farting camel.
The campsite we are on at the moment is described in the guide as funky which just about sums it up. It's the smallest we've been on so far, there are ten Motorhomes now and one tent and it's full. It's run by two brothers from Mali who are also musicians and who promote a musical festival here every year. They also play traditional Tuareg and Berber music in the restaurant in the evenings so funky is the right word for this place. Their family still live in the desert and their uncles breed and trade camels. Last night one of the brothers told me these interesting facts which I shall now share with you. Camels live to sixty or seventy years, they reach their prime at about twenty five years. They can carry up to 450 kilos and drink once a week when they will drink seventy litres of water. And finally, a good female camel will set you back about two thousand euros. So it's cheaper than an Escort van, lasts longer, carries the same load and doesn't have the same fuel or maintenance costs. It may be a little slower but aren't we all in just too much of a hurry these days?
I've sorted out the nightmare that is a Maroc Telecom SIM card but the 3G signal here is week, so is the on site WiFi so no pics today.
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