Camel Trek, Part One

This is a picture of Ghilzan, a nomadic girl of the Middle Atlas Mountains, who was minding her family's tent (as well as their turkeys, goats, dogs and drying laundry), while her parents were off tending sheep. Seeing her was one of many great moments on the drive to the Sahara. (One of the others was when our Moroccan driver Sayeed and guide Hamza switched from Moroccan music to Madonna's "Holiday," one of my all time favorite songs, and one completely incongruous with the scenery. ) Morocco has an extremely varied terrain, and our journey took us from Rabat on the Atlantic Ocean, through the Middle Atlas and then High Atlas Mountains, and then to the desert southeast, about 25 miles from Algeria. The area in which Ghilzan's family graze their sheep is reminiscent of Central Asia: rocky, windswept, with short green grass and bushes. (Rosemary grows wild in the area, and we grabbed some to refresh our closets back at Home Base.) Other parts are what I would call high chapparel, others craggy red gorges, and then long oasis-like, mile-wide swaths of palm trees following the main rivers. The towns in between are dusty, crowded, with lots of construction on the main roads. We did stop to see a traditional ancient Kasbah, which is analoguous to a feudal castle in Europe, and to shop for fossils captured in marble. As far as the people go, they seem quite relaxed somehow, in the midst of what feels like us to be a discombulated environment. It may be the comfort of mostly living in small towns, with traditional roles for everyone, and really, no particular need to chase a buck, because there are none to be found. Berber women in the high country are mostly covered up (not their faces, though) and in addition, wear a black drape over the whole ensemble. The people are so interesting looking (as they descend from all parts of Africa and Arabia), but it is considered rude, or even scandalous to photograph them, so we can only look. Very frustrating! (Ghilzan the nomad girl above was reassured by Sayeed and Hamza, and we left money for her family, for the pleasure of looking closely at, and photographing, their home and animals.) Anyway, the total drive to the Sahara took about 9 hours. We left Friday afternoon (six of us) and stopped overnight in a great hotel in Azrou. (The walls of the main salon and the staircase were beautifully tiled in traditional Moroccan style, and the food was also traditional and delicious.) I took a walk early in the morning, but it was clear that I was the only woman in sight, so quickly returned to the hotel. On Saturday, we made the rest of the trip to the Sahara, arriving at our destination Merzouga at about 5:00 pm -- in time to put on our desert turbans and get on the camels for a sunset ride of one and half hours into the desert. More details will follow in the next one or two blogs. Until then, b'salaamah.