de Laat Family 2.0: Erg Chebbi - Sleeping in the Sands of the Sahara

On our third day we headed out of Fes, and towards the Middle Atlas mountain range. We could see the landscape change before our eyes...

Much of the road was lined with these low forests, and all along the road we saw these stone pillars, frequently topped with a plastic bottle... we were a bit perplexed as to their purpose... more on that later!

We were also surprised to see monkeys playing in the trees along the side of the road! The Barbary macaque, is the only macaque found outside of Asia and is found in Morocco and Algeria. They were big, too! Sorry, no pictures!

We passed through a town called Ifrane, which was a bit peculiar. It was built by the French in 1929 as a colonial retreat, and is known as the "Little Switzerland" because the buildings are all built in a classical alpine style. What attracted the French, and now the Moroccans, is the particularly cool climate during the summer. The Prince has now built a palace here, so it remains a fashionable place for well to do Moroccans to escape the heat in the cities.

You can barely see it in this picture, but this was a brand new, huge, development of townhouses and other tract housing. Swiss inspired of course.

Past Ifrane, we continued our climb up into the foothills of the Middle Atlas.

It wasn't long before we started seeing Berber settlements like these low earthen buildings.

Fields of purple wild flowers.

The terrain got pretty rocky.

Then the Berber settlements became tent camps like these.

And we could see them dotting the hillsides with their herd of goats and sheep.

I couldn't get a good shot of this truck (in front of the van) but this is pretty much how they transport their hay. The load up the hay bales, in an upside down pyramid, over the cab, the sides and hanging out over the back. A bit intimidating to pass, and most likely seriously top-heavy...

Ruins of an old kasbah up on the hill...

We started seeing the pillars of rocks again, but this time we would see them in a series... first on with what we guess was a petrol container, then an oil bottle, then a water bottle, and finally some Coke bottles on the last couple pillars. But this time we would see someone sitting nearby - apparently selling, gas, oil, water or Coke.

Snow up on the peaks...

Luna and baby...

Then we hit this river gorge, not as narrow and spectacular as the Dades gorge, which we didn't have time to see, but it was still pretty long and very impressive!

Eventually, an oasis of palms and other trees sprang up around the river, which still runs through the gorge.

And then at the end of the gorge, this surprising lake!

We stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe and I took this picture of our rental car. Here is our trusty little Kia Picante. Please note the ground clearance - there will be more on that in my next post... This is why I managed to cram 12 days worth of stuff into 3 carry-ons! Anything more wouldn't have fit in the car!

Another oasis, this time with kasbahs all along the edge.

After the last of the gorge we hit the flats before the desert starts. Talk about a change of scenery!

Then after we passed the last town (literally) we watched for a sign for our auberge, and turned left, off the road and onto this track through the dirt. We could see the dunes rising in the distance.

One more turn towards our Kasbah...

And there it was!

We checked in and they gave us a room to leave our stuff in, even though we weren't going to be sleeping in it!

Our room was down another dark hallway, but this kept the room nice and cool.

Here it is from the outside.

The kasbah had lots of shady little nests like this one...

Luna quickly found the pool, but there was no time for swimming, because we had to get changed, pack a back-pack...

and join the caravan!

Luna's second camel ride (mine too for that matter.)

Our Bedouin guide.

Some of the dunes are over 150 meters high.

After the last picture I had to put my camera away, because believe it or not, out of nowhere, and after travelling all that way to spend the night in the desert - the skies opened up and POURED down rain on us! It was a bit scary, with lightning and us being the tallest structures around. Not to mention rather cold, wet, and uncomfortable - especially from the sand being driven into our eyes by the wind. But we finally made it to our camp.

This is the "luxury" camp... can't you tell? We have mattresses!

We didn't spend much time outside. There was no magical sunset or starry night skies for us. Just blinding sand. :) Maybe that makes it an even more memorable experience.