ERFOUD

According to our original itinerary we were supposed to get up at 3:30am for a 4x4 ride out into the desert and then a camel ride up into the dunes to watch the sun rise. Our guide, Ibrahim, suggested that we reschedule the camel tour to the evening, which we all agreed would be a much better idea!

So, in the morning we went to a “fossil” factory instead. Back in the day, the entire region was underwater. So, there are a lot of preserved sea creatures in the rocks around Erfoud. One of the city’s main industries now is digging up rocks containing these fossilized sea creatures and then cutting the rocks into various things like tables, sinks, statues, etc. where you can clearly see the fossils.
It was quite fascinating to see the workshop where the men cut and polished the rocks. They were a bit peeved because they had to stop production while we were touring the facility. (The dust from the cutting and sanding is pretty ferocious.) Also, they didn’t particularly like us taking photos of them. (Oh, well – if the boss says it’s okay, I will take photos as I please.)

I won’t spoil the surprise for my sister, but I did pick up a couple of things in the fossil shop. Again, I didn’t really bargain before laying down my credit card. I know I paid too much because the salesman came up to me later and gave me a bunch of pendants for free.

From there we drove to Rissani where we stopped at a beautiful mosque – at least, I think it was a mosque. Anyway, it had a beautiful inner courtyard full of palm trees and fountains. The dates were covered with cloth to protect them from birds, small rodents, and the worst date-stealers of all, humans.

From there we drove to the Oulad Abdelhalim Ksar, a walled fortress where the sultan used to keep his older brides and from which he conducted his business in the southern regions. The ksar is largely ruined but a few Berber families still live there. Our guide led us to the home of an older Berber woman who let us come into her home. She didn’t want her photo taken because of old beliefs about cameras stealing your soul, so we limited ourselves to capturing the essence of her home – the cooking area, the dates drying in the sun, the cat lounging under the palm tree, the laundry hanging on the line. We left her a few hundred dirham as thanks and she was very grateful. Our guide told us later that in a few days there was a major celebration and the woman would use the money to buy flour and sugar and salt to make cakes for her family and guests.

We returned to our hotel around 2pm for a quick change into camel-worthy clothing. Two 4x4 Toyota Land Cruisers picked us up at 3pm and took us on an hour-long ride out into the desert to the oasis of Merzouga. It was quite a bumpy ride but very fun. At the oasis we mounted our camels and started an hour-long trek out into the Erg Chebbi dunes.

The camel ride that Mom and I went on in Tunisia was nowhere near as amazing as the camel ride into the Erg Chebbi dunes. For instance, there were DUNES! In Tunisia we just rode our camels out to a flat spot in the sand and rock desert. More importantly, we rode for a long, long time on the camels. In Tunisia we had a slow 30-minute ride out into the desert and a perfunctory 15-minute ride back.

The sunsets in Morocco aren’t as impressive as they are in other parts of the world. The sun descends very quickly to the horizon and disappears in less than a minute. There is no red or orange glow lighting up the sky afterwards. So, you have to take your pictures quickly and then get the hell out of dodge before it becomes completely dark out.

We got to experience one more thing on the dunes – Berber skiing. This involves sitting on a blanket and being pulled down the dune by your guide. Mom skied down the dune on one blanket while Sandra and Leikny skied down the dune on the other blanket.

We said goodbye to our camels at Merzouga and made the long and bumpy ride back to our hotel in the Toyota Land Cruisers. We all headed to our rooms to de-sand and shower before dinner. Mom collected about 1 cup of red desert sand from her shoes alone.