Nov 29 – To our Desert Camp

Today we have a long drive.  However, our group is two short as Susan and Diane stayed in Fes.  Susan is having problems with her back and Diane is quite ill.  They will fly to Marrakech in a couple of days when they are feeling better.

At our first stop there were a number of Macaque monkeys and a vendor selling monkey food.  Several of us spent a bit of time feeding them.

We had a short stop at Ifrane, the Switzerland of Morocco.  It was pretty cold there.  Most of the group ordered a hot drink and used the facilities before we headed out again.  There was no real sightseeing.

During the drive we saw snowcapped mountains...

and nomad camps.  They seem to be fairly common in this area of Morocco.

We followed the Ziz River through some pretty impressive gorges.

The river eventually flowed into a reservoir.  The reservoir dam is used to generate electric power. 

We also passed some picturesque towns nestled along the river.

It seemed pretty lush along the river with lots of date palms.

Our destination today was the town of Merzouga, right on the edge of some really large sand dunes.

In Merzouga we transferred to 4 wheel drive vehicles for a trip through town...

and out into the desert.  

We were in three vehicles, one of which became stuck in the sand and had to be pushed out. 

While waiting for the car to be pushed out of the sand the guys in the group decided to climb a nearby sand dune.

The drivers seemed to take please in driving as crazy as possible.  It was like riding a rollercoaster.  In the sand.  Sand everywhere.  Only sand.

We stopped on the top of a dune to take pictures of a camp, that turned out not to be ours. 

Our driver pointed to a range of mountains in the distance to the east and indicated that they were in Algeria.  Our camp is only about 13 kilometers from the border.

After a white knuckle ride over the dunes the drivers then headed to our camp which was quite a ways out into the desert. 

The camp is pretty awesome with 10 tents and a large dining tent.  We all have a bathroom that included flush toilets, a sink, a shower and hot water.  But there was no heat in the tents so it was pretty cold. 

We walked up to a nearby sand dune to get pictures of the surrounding area...

and the sunset.  It was a pretty good one and it lingered for quite a while. 

Then we trekked back to the camp for dinner.  After dinner they had a camp fire waiting for us.  We listed to some drumming and singing and had a lovely time with our hosts.

Then it was back to our cold luxury cabin where we both dressed in our thermals for the night.  The bed had a very warm comforter so we were warm except for whenever we had to get up.