Welcome back to my Moroccan {Spring Break} trip recap.
Last week I shared part one.
We left Fez early on day five and jumped into our bus for a FULL day of driving.
Morocco Trip Day #5
We were told we would have 11 hours of driving that would eventually get us to the Sahara desert.
We took several stops along the way to see some amazing sites.
Omar (our guide) is now our friend and we have invited him to come visit us in Portugal. That’s how we roll.
The gang. We were very blessed to spend so many days with these wonderful families.
ABC with Uncle Omar.
And then we stopped to see more of these.
I may have screamed at David to throw the banana at the monkey, as we had been instructed, instead of trying to hand it to him. (I mean that is what Omar told us to do.) Slight panic attack for me, but also fun to watch a monkey catch a banana.
Now you will have to bear with me…look closely at this bus and look at the yellow hat.
If you are from Oregon you will know what I’m referring to.
I’m referring to a U of O hat from our alma mater! How crazy to see that in the Moroccan desert at a gas station! We went over to the bus to see if there were any Oregonians on board, not the case, it was the driver’s hat.
Then finally we arrived at the desert.
We were on dirt roads at this point and our driver asked a guy on a motor bike to drive us towards our hotel.
Our desert hotel.
That is all the documentation I have of this hotel because this is the point in the trip when our group turned from a healthy group to a sickly group. The first bout of what we referred to as “African belly” happened at the tail end of our drive. Then that night Berkley and I got very sick and ended up spending much of the night lying on the bathroom floor. That is how sick we were, and due to the fact that the A/C was not working.
Day #6
By the morning Berkley had bounced back and was ready to join the group on a 4X4 trip out in the desert. (She never ceases to amaze!) Me not so much. Ainsley (who also wasn’t feeling well at this point) and I stayed back with one of the other sick kids and the three of us passed out slept until noon. Poor Connor had also had a rough morning but he rallied to go on the 4X4 trip. They all had a great time and even stopped to have tea with a Berber family.
Day six was a LONG day. (A day that I was glad that we had brought prescription strength medication with us.) After taking medication and packing we were told that we would just hang out at the hotel until around six and then we would head out to our camel ride! That would have probably been just fine if half of our group wasn’t sick, if there had been A/C in the hotel, and if there had been more food options other than Pringles. (Pringles became a staple on our trip and now most of us will probably not touch a Pringle again anytime soon, or ever.)
We survived, it wasn’t a pretty afternoon but we all survived. I should mention that this particular hotel was somewhat in the middle of nowhere. And when I say nowhere, I mean nowhere. This was the view when you walked out of the hotel.
At six o’clock we loaded up for another 4×4 ride (@30 minutes) to the desert and we arrived at our new transportation.
This camel was mine. I shared him with Ainsley. He was not a happy camel.
Ainsley with her head wrap. We were told to wear these although we wouldn’t have had to. The weather was perfect. No wind, just a beautiful warm evening.
Pink is her color, always.
David took Berkley, I rode with Ainsley, and Connor (our animal lover) rode his own. He is such a brave kid.
Getting on to the camel was easy and then as they go to stand up you feel like you are on a roller coaster there is a big forward and backward movement as they stand up. And, they make a lot of noise about having to stand back up. One might call it protesting.
I was a little anxious about the “camel ride” I had visioned myself riding a camel that didn’t want to stay in the pack and wouldn’t respond to my guidance. I assumed we would have reigns of some kind. Not the case at all. The camels are tied together and all you have to do is hold on to the saddle.
Our camel was number one in the chain and this was our view for the next hour.
We arrived at our gorgeous camp site. This was “glamping” for sure! The nicest camping I have ever done!
Check out these accommodations. (This is inside of the tent.) We had a full bathroom, toilet and shower included.
#moroccanglampingbathroomselfie
It was a great night. We were offered mint tea when we arrived and then served a wonderful dinner. Unfortunately some of our group was still somewhat ill so we had a harder time enjoying the meal. We ended the evening by the camp fire and listening to the staff play drums.
Day #7
The next day we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and a yummy breakfast.
Then it was back on the road again. We were going to be driving through the gorge and starting to head towards Marrakesh.
We stopped along the way and took a short hike through some gorgeous scenery.
I was always intrigued to see so much “old school” with “new school.” Here is a woman with a load on her back following her donkey and our guide is behind her and is on his cell phone.
After another long day of driving, we arrived at our hotel and we were excited to discover there was a pool! The kids were thrilled to get to put on their suits and cool off.
We were served another fabulous dinner on the patio and then we all crashed for the night.
The final three days we spent driving to Marrakesh, staying in Marrakesh, and then making our way back to Tangier. I’ll share about those days next Friday and then follow-up with a fourth post sharing about all of the take aways.
I think that’s the beauty of travel. It always impacts you and opens your eyes to other ideas and other ways of doing things. It helps you to be more flexible and understanding.
This trip was no exception.
