After a great lunch at Qalam Wa Lawh on July 8th, myself along with about 50 others hopped on to a large bus to start our trek to the Sahara. The first day we traveled for about 6 or 7 hours, and after about five hours we made it to a monkey place, where I saw some monkeys up close and personal. It was cool. A few hours later and we made it to some nice oasis like hotel in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful, but we didn't get there until it was to late to swim in the murky pool (at this stage in the trip, and pool is great!). The hotel was beautifully decorated with rugs on the stairs, walls, and floors. The air conditioning was quite nice as well, and the large bathtub was calling my name, although it could not be filled in less than 3 hours. Apparently water pressure in the desert isn't exactly the best. After kind of settling into the hotel, I shaved my legs in the great bathtub, and went to dinner. We started off with the typical basket of bread and water. I then ordered the best lemonade ever. It was so cold, and lemony, and sweet, absolutely scrumptious. After another meal of lamb, potatoes, and carrots, a few Saudi Arabian men showed us how to take coffee, Saudi style. The coffee was flavored with the precious saffron plant, which is reserved for guests and people of importance in the Saudi home. It was extremely bitter, and definitely woke me up. Unfortunately they were not prepared for 60 awkward guests, so we passed around 5 coffee cups (little bitty cups) and took shots of coffee. It was great fun. I then took a shower and went to bed, excited for day two of the desert adventure.
The next morning couldn't come fast enough, I woke up at 6:45 and attempted to take a bath, but realized again that the water would never fill the tub, so I washed my face and stood on the balcony. I watched the murky pool reflect the sunrise as I listened to my newest audiobook, The Pixar Touch. I have since finished listening to it, and I reccomend it to everyone! It is absolutely wonderful. After waiting around for a while, I packed my stuff up and headed to a breakfast of bread, cheese, and yogurt. After spending much too long eating breakfast, the group finally headed back to the bus to continue on in our journey of some 8 more hours of driving east. I don't remember too much of the ride, because it was so boring, but we did have a couple of interesting stops. At about noon we stopped for lunch in some town. It was incredibly hot and we were all begging for water at this adorable little restaurant. We were instructed though, to not drink any water after we started eating this Berber pizza stuff. Kind of dubious, but whatever. We then went to market and bought scarves to wrap our heads with when we went to the desert. I got carried away and bought three and a dress. It's best to be prepared for the desert, and the scarves came in handy later when I needed a towel.
A couple hours later, at the hottest time of day we stopped to look at fossils at a fossil shop. Why anyone would travel to the middle of nowhere to buy fossil stuff beats me, but it was interesting. After another hour or so in a bus, we made it to another destination, 4x4 tour of the desert area. We drove quickly around the rocky part of the desert, up to our main stop, the camel place. Once at the camel place we received 2 large bottles of water that would suffice us for the night and until the next day. Fortunately we were on Moroccan time, and arrived a couple hours late so it wasn't as hot as we expected it to be. We boarded the camels and set out into the beautiful dunes. The desert is amazing. It is so beautiful and peaceful, AND you can get cell phone service, crazy, eh? A couple hours on the back of a camel and we arrive at our campsite, where we eat bread and lamb and potatoes and carrots, yum. It was pretty dark by the time we got to dinner, so we ate in the light of a gas lamp and then everyone started to set up for bed. Most chose to sleep under the stars, but I knew better. A friend and I took a tent that was probably intended for eight and sprawled out. It was rather warm, but we opened the door flap and let the breeze in. I slept quite well in the tent while others woke up complaining about the sand blowing in their face all night, ha. We hopped back on the camels around 5:30 ish in the morning, and watched the sun rise on our way back to the central hub. I took a shower and ate breakfast and was excited to go back to Rabat. It was a great trip, but the tens of hours in a bus lessened the experience, none the less I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend in the Sahara.
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