Gite Ras El Ma to Er Rachidia

After breakfast our host kindly offered to droip us in at the bus station so we waved goodbye to the Gite Ras El Ma.

We ended up taking a Grand Taxi to Midelt which cost 40 Dirham.  There was Louise and myself in the front with the driver and four American Peace Core workers in the back who were all headed up into the high Atlas for the weekend for a trek.

We were all a little squished but made it to Midelt without incident.  Lou and I decided to push on to Er Rachidia since it was only about mid day so we climbed into another Grand Taxi, this time with only three of us in the back seat and two in the front.

Not much to report about the day really or Er Rachidia there really isn’t much to recommend the place.  We only stopped for the day because it was getting a little late.  The hotel is right behind the bus station so at least we do not have far to go in the morning.

Er Rachidia to Hassi Labied

The only good thing I can say about the hotel last night was that at least it is convenient to the bus station and the water was hot in the shower.  It was also incredibly noisy so not much sleep was gained all round.

We got on a local bus, not the nice clean luxury CTM bus, but it was still quite good.  We didn’t get wet at least, ok so it wasn’t raining but even if it was I’m sure we would have been fine.  They also only seem to let people on that they have seats for which is also a bonus.

While we were waiting for the bus to depart a male stood up with a portable tape recorder and started singing.  Imagine live karaoke on a bus in Arabic.  At first I though oh so the radio doesn’t work so they are providing live entertainment to keep us all amused.  Then he went into sales pitch pulling three tapes from his pocket he finished his speech then lunchtime singing while walking up and down the length of the bus.  I was laughing.  Louise being a little kinder then me was remaining poker faced.  Talk about a captive audience.

After about five to ten minutes of the little man parading up and down the isle of the bus singing his little heart out he finally stopped gave a short bow and launched into his sales pitch once more.  Then with a short pause presumably to see if anyone wanted to buy one of his tapes he finally got off the bus.

Next in the Live on Bus entertainment was the ‘Cure-All’ man who walked on and Launched straight into his sales pitch handing out a pamphlet describing all the benefits of his product.  I would tell you all about this amazing product but we had to give the pamphlet back but apparently this stuff could cure everything and anything wrong with your eyes from irritation to blindness.  Amazing stuff.  Really doctors should hear about this stuff.  Here we are having operations to remove cataracs and fix short sight and all we needed was to apply some of this little miracle lotion and all would be well.  Once he had finished his pitch the ‘Cure-All’ man gave up and got off the bus.

There were two other Belgian backpackers in Efroud when the bus pulled in and it turned out they were going to Merzouga to do a camel trek in Erg Chebbi as well so we teamed up and hired a Grand Taxi.

As predicted they first tried to recommend ‘a good hotel’ in Merzouga.  We told them we wanted to go to the Kasbah Mohajut.  They tried saying that we could not go there because it was full.  On telling them that it was ok because we had reservations they then told us we did not want to stay there as it was a ‘bad place’, ‘no good’, but this other place they knew of was ‘very good place’.  The next tactic was to tell us the road was too bad that it was not possible for the taxi to drive to Hassi Labied.  When it became obvious that we were not going to stay where they wanted and thus they would not earn commission they flatly refused to take us to Hassi Labied.  The only place they would agree to take us all to was Merzouga about 5km down the road from Hassi Labied.  We went with the other two figuring worst case it was only 5km, we could walk if we had to.  We continued trying to negotiate with the driver but did not get anywhere except an admission that it was possible to drive to Hassi Labied but would cost about 70 Dirham, we still had to go to Merzouga first.

On arrival in Merzouga it became apparent why they insist on going to Merzouga.  The taxi kept stopping so touts could try to get us into their hotel or on their camel trek.  Funny we still did not agree.  Finally the driver dropped the price from 70 dirham each to 50 dirham between us to take us to Hassi Labied.  We accepted but he then moved further into town where the taxi was met by more touts offering us a room that was ‘better’.  The taxi driver increased the price once more to 60 Dirham each so we got our backpacks out of the boot and start to walk to Hassi Labied.  The driver realising that he was loosing his fare waved us back and agreed to the price of 50 dirham to take us both the Hassi Labied though he did not seem happy about it.  Tough.

Of course while the road was not paved it was fine and certainly possible to drive there with a car.  It is a pity really since this is the first time we’ve encountered this problem in Morocco.  I hope it does not catch on and spread throughout the country.  If your in this part of the world I would suggest taking the bus or train where possible as we’ve certainly found them to be clean, comfortable, assigned seating and absolutely no hassle with a set price.

From the outside the Kasbah does not look like much.  Just a mud brick building.  Inside it is beautiful with gardens in the central courtyards with impressive rugs on the floor and decorating the walls.

We arranged a 2 night 3 day camel trek to leave tomorrow afternoon.  One night in an existing camp the next just out in the dunes by ourselves.  The weather is still overcast but since they have had a 7 year drought which has only just broken we really can not complain.  It is good for them even if it isn’t for us.

Hassi Labied to Erg Chebbi Camp

Hassan, one of the guys that works in the Kasbah took us for a walk through the small village of Hassi Labied this morning.  Many of the houses washed away or crumbled recently due to the breaking of the drought and the town is in a dry river bed.  So of course when the heavens finally opened up the river ran and the mud bricks used to build the houses returned to their original form, mud.

The gardens or crops the villages keep were interesting with each family having their own plot of land.  They have a series of trenches for irrigation and by building little dams across the trenches the water flows to each of the gardens in turn.  They grow everything dates,corn, mint, onions, carrots…..

In the village itself we went to one of the bake houses.  They are small communal mud brick houses with an oven inside for baking bread.  How the ladies stood staying in there for hours baking is beyond me as the small confines of the bakehouse was filled with smoke.

We also went to the cooperative after that and viewed all the locally made carpets, jewelry, clothes etc made by various members of the assorted nomad tribes.  These guys were no where near as pushy and Lou went on a shopping spree.

We got back to the Kasbah just after lunch and basically relaxed after some soup listening to music until it was time to get ready for the camel trek.  There were six of us heading out this afternoon, two others had reportedly left earlier in the day.  In our little group were a British couple, Liz and Mike and a couple of American Ladies Joani and Dena.  We all mounted up on our camels with a little assistance from our guides clutching at the handle bar at the front of the saddle as the camel lurched forward then back with one more forward lurch to finally stand.  Its a little unsettling at first let me tell you as you end up at a steep angle and it feels like your either going to be thrown over the camels head or go tumbling off the back.  There is another name for that little bar by the way but I will leave it up to your imagination to call it what you will!

We headed out from the Kasbah in the late afternoon, it was overcast and threatening to rain but thankfully was not really all that cold.  We zig zaged through the dunes and soon the Kasbah was left behind and out of sight.

Riding a camel is kinda interesting.  The saddle, with the little handle bars (aka ‘oh Jesus’ bars and other assorted names depending on you favourite expletive used when shocked as you are being thrown forward or backwards at angles and feel like your going to fall off) at the front to hold onto goes around the hump.  They place a folded up blanket over the hump as extra padding with another blanket thrown over the top.  Somehow it all stays in place, though the camel has an ungainly gait that takes a bit of getting used to.  For the life of me I can not work out how you could race on a camel.  Now one sits on the hump or just behind it, makes a whole different set of problems if you are a boy one would guess particularly if there is not enough padding. 

We were in single file with our guide on foot out front each camel tied in turn to the one in front.  As we zig zaged our way over and between the dunes it grew darker with shadows spreading and the colours around as changing every moment.  The glimpses of the village of Hassi Labied as we twisted and turned became more distant with the the seemingly never ending expanse of sand dunes flowing out in every direction.

At first we saw others out in the dunes, a pair on motor bikes, some walking laboriously up a huge sand dune on foot but soon it was just us with the occasional impressions made by other camels that had come this way before us that the wind had not yet blown away.  We took a break for ‘Berber whiskey’, mint tea, I think more for our benefit so we could stretch our legs than the camels who all looked fine.

We finally stopped in what our guide called the camel parking lot before grabbing our day packs and supplies walking up the dune to see our campsite below.  We walked down the dune and into the campsite just as the light was dying from the sky.

There were five tents made from large woven rough blankets and a kitchen and toilet to one side of the little camp.  We were ushered into the larger dining tent with candles on the table of light.  The night disappeared faster than I really expected it to with talk on everything from politics to travel and good food consisting of soup, tanjine and fruit for desert all prepared by our guide.

Right at the end just before we all turned in for the night the moon peaked out through the clouds making a guest appearance and casting its light across the dunes.

Erg Chebbi

Woke up early this morning, for once though the sun was out and the sky was blue though I could see the clouds coming over.  The camp was quiet with the only others up being the British couple Liz and Mike.  For once there was an advantage to waking up early I got up and climbed one of the sand dunes and stood just watching as the sun rose above the dunes.  A beautiful way to start the morning.

Others got up by ones and twos and climbing the dunes to watch the sun rise and shortly after when we walked back into camp, we were not that far out, ‘Berber Whiskey’ was served up with biscuits.  The others were all bundled up and as the clouds started to close over once more we stood up on a dune over looking the parking lot and waved goodbye to the others as they headed back to the Kasbah.

We relaxed in camp for a couple of hours and after breakfast we headed off.  The faint hope we’d had that maybe we’d get clear skies kind of disappeared as the clouds showed no signs of disappearing.  Still we had some great views from some of the higher dunes and except for the occasional print from a camel no other signs of anyone else.

We ended up in a berber camp for lunch and shortly after we settle down to wait for lunch three little berber children set up shop in front of us pulling out little hand made camels, head bands and belts from their bags.  They sat their quietly talking amoungst themselves for about 20 minutes before packing up their gear and running off to play.

Another couple of travellers pulled up on their camels though we found out they were spending the night here.  Marcus and Tommy spent a couple of minutes saying hello before the lure of the sand dunes called and they bundled up their boards and began the long slow climb up a massive sand dune in front of the camp.  It took them all of 45 minutes to climb to the top and about 20 seconds to get down.  Mad, simply mad.

While the boys were climbing the sand dune it started to sprinkle then started to settle into rain.  We ended up moving into the dining tent to keep dry.  According to our guide we were still heading to our camp after lunch so neither Louise or I bothered to make sure all the mattress’s and blankets stayed dry or really got comfortable and settled in.

Lunch arrived in the tent and ended up being a Berber omelet with tomato, onion and herbs.  It was good as usual, we really haven’t had too many bad meals here, but way too much food for us.  This time however we passed the left overs to the boys who finished their own meal and polished off the rest of ours as well.

The rain kind of stopped, still got the occasional drop but you couldn’t even say it was sprinkling, so the boys dashed up the sand dune for another 20 second run down the dune.  I still think they are mad.  We waited since we were told by our guide that we were leaving.

We continued waiting, and did some more waiting then we saw some of the locals heading up the sand dune among them our guide as well as the guide that came in with the boys.  They got to the top of the dune and sat down. 

We continued waiting.

About an hour and a half later our guide and the others decided to come down the dune.  Getting a little impatient since it was now about 1700 hours we asked what was going on only to be told we were staying here now and not going on to the next camp because it was going to rain.  To say that Louise and I were a little bit pissed off at our guide who had decided that smoking on the top of the sand dune with his friends was much more interesting than taking us to our camp and certainly more interesting than telling us earlier that he just could not be bothered moving on is an understatement.

Louise asked where the toilet was since she had been holding on since 1000 hours that morning since they packed up the tiolet in the morning camp.  The guide looked at us then waved off in the direction of the dunes telling us there wasn’t one.  That caused some constanation but the guide assured us not to worry no one would follow or watch.  Um yeah right.  So off we tramped to find a dune that wasn’t visible from the camp or from the top of the dune.  We were not all that successful but when you gotta go you gotta go and we each took turns being look out for the other!

Louise and I moved into the dining tent and moved some of the blankets and mattresses our of the way of the persistent drips.  It was a little hard since there ended up being only one corner of the tent that was dry.  The boys came inside and the skies decided to really open up and the rain poured down.  We ended up with our bags under the tables to keep them dry and wrapped up in blankets to keep warm as it got cooler.  One of the guides finally came in and noticed that the tent was leaking like a sieve and helped move the rest of the mattresses and blankets.  He ended up getting an old stool and propping up the tent at the end we were sitting so the water would not pool and leak through the seams where we were sitting.

(It’s a little blurred but I’m sure you get the idea!)

Well after dark some other travellers came in drenched and joined our little group.  Marcus pulled out his MP3 player and speakers so we all had some music, we had chocolate and the other two had some fruit that was all bundled on the table to share.  None of us had thought to smuggle some alcohol in our packs though, oh well.  We all ended up laughing.  After all how many people can say they went on a camel trek in the Sahara and it rained on them?  I mean seriously!

The night passed with much laughter and we all went off to the sleeping tents that had been prepared for us.  It started to rain again.  Of course our tent leaked a little and I heard Louise muttering to herself.

‘Lets go to the desert she said.  Lets go on a camel trek she said and stay in a Berber camp.  Great I said.  What a wonderful idea I said…......’

One of the drips was falling straight on Lou’s head.  At least she laughed.  What else could we do?

Erg Chebbi to Hasi Labied

Woke up a little damp this morning.  The tent leaked, mattress was wet, the rugs damp and the whole thing smelt of wet camel.  Oh joy.  Remind me again why I like this stuff?  Oh yeah that’s right its an adventure!

I went out into the dunes trying to find a spot that no one was using and where no one could see me from the top of the dune.  I ended up giving up since there wasn’t anywhere and settled for a dune not currently being used and that the camp could not see me.  Louise just decided to hold on.

We were dressed, ready and waiting in record time both of us on the same page wanting to get back to the Kasbah, nice hot shower and clean clothes.  The others slipped out of their tents and it was the first question everyone asked ‘did your tent leak too?’  At least ours wasn’t the only one.  We soon found out why our tent had smelt like wet camel when our guide ducked into what had been our tent and came out with the blankets and promptly saddled the camels with them.  No wonder there was the smell of wet camel!

It took about two and a half hours to wind our way through the dunes back to Hassi Labied and the Kasbah.  We were headed into the dining room for breakfast and met up with Joani and Dena who were just finishing their breakfast so came over to join us.  They told us that we were all flooded in.  We were not really all that surprised given the amount of rain we’d had but were at least grateful that we had booked the night in the Kasbah already so at least we had a room.  Dena and Joani were stuck here in Hassi Labied but did not have a room as the Kasbah was full and they had been intending to leave this morning.  We offered them beds in our room since it is large and already had three beds in it they only had to get the Kasbah staff to pull in an extra bed.

Two American girls, Esther and Lilian also joined us and they were going out on an overnight camel trek heading out in the afternoon.  We assured them that while we got wet that we had still enjoyed it.  Turned out they did not have a room either since they were heading out to the desert camp so we said they could spend the day relaxing in our room to use the shower and toilet etc.  Our room was fast turning into a half-way house for stranded back packers!  Still it was fun chatting to the girls and we didn’t have any plans except to relax, just as well since the road was flooded.

So that was our day, we read, listened to music and generally talked with the girls until it was time to wave them off as they headed for their own adventure.  Louise taught them her mantra ‘It’s an adventure, its an adventure….’ and all about the ‘Jesus bar’ so they were as prepared as we could make them.  We waved goodbye then with a little chuckle went inside and had a beer.

Dinner that night was a buffet with soup, salads, different types of tanjines and once again the kitchen out did itself.

Joani and Dena brought a bottle of red wine to share with us to thank us for the offer of the room and they ended up sharing it with us even though they had ended up with a room since some of the people who had booked had not been able to make it through the flood waters.

It was an enjoyable evening and towards the end music started up and even Hassan joined in playing the drum.