The Sahara Desert and Camels

we took an early morning bus from tinghir to get us most of the way to the desert. it took us to a town, that honestly i'm not sure i ever knew the name of. after many different people tried to be our guide and choose their taxi, we finally got our own cab and drove for a bit. got out. grabbed all our stuff and walked to the other side of town. to get back into the exact same cab! i guess he wanted a lot more money than our friend nabile thought we should have to pay, especially when we could walk to a location where a cab would be cheaper. i believe it was simply a coincidence that our cab driver beat us to the location and ended up driving us anyways! we were really glad to have our own guide with us because he was able to make sure we didn't get ripped off.
as we drove i thought it was interesting that there would be nothing anywhere nearby the road, then suddenly a clump of billboards, then nothing, then a clump of billboards again. i did my best to take a picture, but it didn't turn out all that well:

we finally arrived at an oasis and our hotel, le soleil bleu.

we were welcomed by the owner and surprise surprise, fed lunch!

we were also greeted by hama the cat, who tried to join us in our meal.

after relaxing for a bit, it was time to be introduced to the camels that we would be riding into the desert. i was very excited about this. i had tried to stay as uninvolved in the planning of this trip as possible, but i had told my mom that if we didn't get to ride camels i would be very upset.

we got to pet the camels, and they got to meet us.

after saying an initial hello to the camels, we went to get our warm clothes together and use the restrooms one last time before heading into the desert. but the hotel owner had a surprise in store for us as well. turbans for everyone, and a kaftan for me!

how moroccan are we?! haha

soon enough we were ready to mount our camels. i would like to point out now, that getting on and off a camel is a little bit like riding a roller coaster. the camel is sitting when you get on. and when it stands up you better hold on tight because first you almost fall off forwards as he stands on his hind legs, and then you almost fall of backwards as he gets is front legs up as well. or something like that.
one we were all on our camels (mom on bob marley, dad on a camel he named einstein, and me on jimi hendrix), we were led off into the dunes.

i don't think i've ever seen that much sand in my life. it seemed to go on for eternity. and it was a color so different from the sand i see when i go to the beach. orange. with hints of blue in certain areas, that i have been told is natural. oh and some of the finest sand i have touched. i suddenly wanted to make a sand castle, but seeing as it's the desert and not the beach, there wasn't exactly water to make a potential sand castle possible, so i gave up on that thought pretty quickly.
so we walked (well our camels, our guide, and nabile did - mom, dad, and i were riding the camels) for over an hour into the dunes in search of the bivouac (tents) where we would be sleeping that night. how our guide new which way to walk, i will never understand. considering when its windy the dunes change, and therefore the same path may not always be taken, i was quite impressed.
finally though we arrived, my butt already feeling bruised from the ride. but my excitement about getting to ride a camel had certainly not diminished because of this fact.
we dismounted and our guide parked the camels for the night. how do you park a camel, you might ask? well you simply tie one of it's knees which prevents it from standing up! (don't worry, they didn't do this back at the hotel because there was actually something already in the ground they could tie them to).

camp was already set up when we arrived, and while we waited for our guide to make some tea and food for us, mom and nabile decided to try out sandboarding!

when we all gathered near the tents for the evening, we discovered there were two kittens who lived out in the desert! they were so little and cute, but were a little skittish around us.
tea was brought out, delicious tajine was served for dinner, and drums were played. just your average night in morocco of course.
later a fire was even made, which i thought smelled really good haha. but i was exhausted and a little cold so i stayed covered on the mats under blankets. finally we did head into the tents for bed. i took off my shoes and was not surprised at all by how much sand i found in them.

i was a little surprised when i woke up in the morning and realized that though we were sleeping in a tent and it was pretty cold out, i had actually been the warmest i had been in a couple of nights. i guess when you spend that much time in the desert you realize how warm the blankets you bring for your tourists need to be!
soon after getting up and getting our few things organized, we were mounting our camels again and preparing to head back to the hotel.
during the night some of the camel tracks on higher dunes had already disappeared because of the wind. but as soon as you saw the poop, you knew we were on the right track.
ensuring that we got to experience a little bit of everything, it even started sprinkling for a few minutes when we were getting close! didn't think i'd see rain in the desert, but i guess i should be prepared for anything!
when we finally returned, our guide took us aside for a minute and explained to us that being a guide for the hotel might be his job, but his real interest is in fossils, and he promptly pulled out some he had found and polished. my parents of course bought some, and we thanked him for everything.
then, we got to take showers! in showers that actually had consistently hot water! i was so excited. i got to feel cleannnn again. we relaxed for awhile after that, played some music with the owners, then went for a walk to see "town" and the other hotels in the area. by the time we got back to the hotel, it started getting a bit windy, and then the wind got pretty bad. we couldn't believe our luck! the weather had been perfect for our arrival and our time in the dunes, and was only getting bad as we were about to head to our next destination.
we ate some dinner and were finally driven into town where we would be catching a bus to catch a train to head to casablanca.
goodbye sahara desert, hello final destination of our week long moroccan adventure!