We are at Haven La Chance Auberge (N31.13342 W4.02039) in the Sahara Desert at a place called Erg
Chebbi - a magnificent 30 mile long sea of sand sculptured by the wind into
dunes, that reach 150m high in places.
And scarily only about 25kms from the border of Algeria by camel!
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| La Chance Auberge - our little oasis in the desert! |
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| Time to make patterns in the sand! |
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| Sitting on the dunes waiting for the sun to set |
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| Temperature gauge showing 35°C |
Leaving Todra Gorge we had to stock up on a few provisions in
Tinerhir and ended up following this Docker, a 3-wheeled motorbike into the town. It always strikes us as being ironic that the
rider has a helmet on and the children in the back are just clinging on for
dear life!
From here we took the last dusty stretch of the N10 and then on to
the R702, although a secondary road it was surprisingly good, and then the N13 for the last stretch. By ‘surprisingly good’ I mean we didn’t have
too many pot holes and bumps to avoid! Most of Morocco’s
desert is hamada – endless plains upon which rest millions of stones of every
shape and size, apparently scattered when the Earth was first formed. Wonder if there are any
valuable fossils among these rocks?!
Heading in to the town of Rissani, the last main town before hitting the edge of
the desert we were greeted by a fabulous welcome gate.
Wow, we thought we are in for a treat here, but alas we should
have known better.
In the town we were once again greeted with poor-surfaced
roads! Roads we last saw this bad was in
the outskirts of Bulgaria and Romania back in 2006!
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| Watch that pot hole on the left Mel and the big dip that is coming up! |
It seems that Morocco are prepared to spend money on their roads
leading up to the towns and then nothing until you come out the other end
again. Strange strategy, given you have
to go through the towns to continue on the roads – there are no by-passes!
Heading further into camel land, we would expect to see nothing
less than this sign
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| Beware of camels sign - and people just ambling into the road! |
The Erg Chebbi dunes at Merzouga are Morocco’s most impressive
sand dunes, stretching out to the border with Algeria and in places rise to
150m. Once parked up it was time to cool off in the campsite pool.
And then time to meet the local wildlife – a Scareb (dung) Beetle - there are lots out here!
There was also a buzzard flying overhead as well - interesting! You also get dessert mice and dessert foxes out here but they only come
out late at night - so no sitting out late for us!
Having crossed Morocco to stand at the edge of the Sahara, we
could hardly leave without hopping onto a camel and heading off into the
dunes. So, the next evening at about 5.45pm we set off from the campsite.
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| And we're off - hold on tight! |
My camel was 20 years old and Mel got a
youngster at 10 years old!
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| Love a shadow camel shot! |
and arrived at our Berber Nomad tent about 40 minutes later.
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| Heading in to our camp for the night |
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| A tad excited to be here! |
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| Hassan and his son, Smetn who were our guardians for the night! |
It was then a challenge to climb to the highest sand dune near to our camp to
watch the sunset. The sand was so hot on our bare feet, it was a great and the feeling of solitude wonderful!
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| Looks a long way back down to base camp! |
Covered in sand we made it back, to do a bit of star gazing.
And then Hassan prepared a lovely meal: starter of olives, bread and salad followed by
a tasty chicken tagine, followed by orange slices in lemon and cinamon.
After food Hassan played some Berber music on the drums and Mel and I tried to join in -badly I hasten to add! Then off to our bed - a hard straw mattress and pillow, a sheet and some very heavy blankets to keep us warm - the temperature drops dramatically in the desert so we would need these later on!
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| In our simple Nomad Berber Tent, that has a mattress on a carpeted floor with a sheet and blankets and a small lamp for a light. |
Night time was interesting as the wind got up and a dessert storm
headed our way. We lay awake talking to the early hours - mostly about what would happen if our tent blew away, with the sand dunes constantly change it would be anybodies guess where we would end up! With very little sleep, we
were up at 5.30am to climb up another big sand dune to watch the sun come up. This time the sand was really cold on our feet, as the temperature had dropped dramatically during the night! But once again the solitude was great, just staring and waiting for the sun to rise
Then back down for breakfast before taking the camel ride back to our campsite. Taking a camel ride 40 minutes into the dessert and sleeping under the stars and waking to watch the sunrise - another one ticked off our ‘bucket list’! And all for just 400DH per person.
Someone once said: “No one who has stayed in the Sahara for a while is quite the same
as when he came… Once a man has been under the spell of the vast luminous,
silent country, no other place is quite strong enough for him, no other
surrounding can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the
midst of something that is absolute.”
We’re not sure we feel their sentiment, as we are knackered from
very little sleep and have sand in every place you can imagine, but it was an
experience we will never forget and will definitely think about doing again.
Sally x
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