Sahara Desert Trip

In addition to the Cascade waterfall trip, our hostel also offers a Sahara Desert Safari. The trip has three versions with different durations of 1, 2, and 3 days. All of them include a single night sleeping in the desert under the stars and a camel ride. We all opt for the 3 day version because it’s not as rushed and you get to see more villages along the way.





James and I were able to find another travel agency en route to the tanneries that had the same trip for 100 dirhams less. It was a no brainer so we all sign up for the 3 day trip and again rise early in the morning to the travel agency.

Our Sahara Desert trip actually included a lot of towns on the way to the sand dunes. One of the most interesting towns we stopped in as located near an oasis. The entire kashba is built with mud and straw. There is some distinction for this particular town though. It is currently a set to the film "Prince of Persia" and previously it was used to shoot many scenes from "The Gladiator".





In another village we were brought to a carpet and rug dealer. We discover quickly that the art of carpet making is only a woman’s skill while rug making is the man’s skill. The salesman does a good job of telling us all the symbolism that goes into the rugs. The materials consist of sheep, camel, and cactus silk. The most expensive ones are made of cactus silk.





Another stop is a valley full of locals. The water here is glacial and ice cold, much like the water from the cascades. There are many locals here and we do not see much tourists. There are little kids playing the water and they are all curious about our group of tourists. Many of the times the only things they can say are the simple greetings like hello, how are you and what’s your name.



The last leg of the journey is coming to a town that is at the edge of the Sahara. Here the roads are sometimes covered with sand drifts and dunes that have blown over. The dunes tower over the city in the distance. We are each instructed to buy 2 large bottles of water for this portion of the tour.





We each mount up on our camels and caravan along the dunes. It is afternoon already so the heat isn’t too hot. The reputation of camels is that they smell and spit. The latter I was unable to experience but they do indeed have a funny smell to them. Although their smell does not even hold a flame to the smells of the tanneries. One interesting this is that camels all seem to have something in their mouths to chew. Whether they regurgitates or just pick up random plans they are constantly chewing. The entire trek the camels take turn pissing on their legs. Camels walk real slow and the bob up and down the entire time. The ride almost gets uncomfortable, especially going down dunes, when the sun stats to set.







As the sun sets we approach a village setup of tents in a rectangle. There are carpets in the middle and our guides cook tagine for dinner. We end up spending one day under the stars in the middle of the desert sleeping on carpet. Without an ambient light from the cities the entire milky way lights up. Gentle warm then cool breezes blow over as we all go to sleep.