The Sahara

We are finally back online, having spent the past 4 days on a tour of the High Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert. A lot of driving was involved, but it was well worth it, and the views in so many places were simply spectacular. What I've included here is simply a taste of what we saw.

One might imagine that there is not a lot to see or talk about when it comes to deserts. However, despite there sometimes being kilometres and kilometres of dry ground, it was a really interesting trip and we saw a lot.


First and foremost, life is pretty tenuous out there. And just looking at it makes you thirsty. After spending our first night in a Berber tent near Zagora (we rode dromedaries there: more on this from Tova!), we all went back to the town (again, by dromedary) to take a shower. However, the water simply ran out after only one shower! Apparently, water pressure in the town had been turned right down due to the drought (yes, apparently that can happen in a desert) and the place where we were taking a shower had run out of reserves.

On our second night, we again rode dromedaries and spent the night in a Berber tent, but this time near the tiny town of Merzouga (very close to the Algerian border). To get there, we left the bitumen and drove about 10 kilometres along a track in the sand. Despite the feeling of complete vulnerability (there was no water in Merzouga and our bus was pretty old!), it was worth it.

What we saw were real Saharan sand dunes, just like you'd imagine them. It was simply amazing and watching the sunset and sunrise from the top of the dunes was beautiful. From where I was, the only noise I could hear was my watch ticking.

And in the evening, we were treated to some traditional Berber music by our guides.

Our third night took us back from Merzouga part of the way towards Marrakech, and on the way to our hotel, we visited some gorges containing oases. I always thought of oases as a couple of palm trees around a very small wetland. But the oases we saw were more like valleys following the course of a river, which only existed because there happened to be a spring in the area (in fact, most riverbeds we saw were dry). We'd round a corner in our bus and suddenly see a shock of green in the middle of the surrounding brown wasteland. People would be living a subsistence lifestyle in towns there. Really amazing.

One oasis we visited in the Todra Gorge supported quite a large town called Tinnehir and had a complex irrigation system arranged by the tribes of the surrounding villages. While we were there, we had a guided tour of the farming areas, which grew everything from grapes and figs to peaches and apples, cabbages and corn. Being there, you would hardly know you were in the middle of a desert, apart from the heat and the thought that if the spring dried up, everything would die.

All in all, it was an amazing trip - and as you can see, we've got the photos to prove it!