We head out early in search of a suitable vehicle to go into the Sahara on, and find out that on short notice, most places don't have a 4x4 on hand. Trusty old Hertz did have a Toyota Land Cuiser Prado Diesel on hand for us to tool around in and so we jump on it.
Having been in countless cabs throughout Morocco, I had some reservations about driving, but my urge to explore overcame any of these feelings and I seemlessly integrated into the Moroccan flow of traffic. Getting out of town wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We found a supermarket (rare) and loaded up on cheese, juice, bread, pitas and chips for the journey. We had to cross
Marrakech to take the Ouarzazate road (pronounces war-za-zat) through the High Altas Mountains and with the exception of some minor close calls with petit cabs, we get out unscathed. Driving into the mountains was nothing short of spectacular and reminded me of Greece except there were more cars and trucks on the road. In a quick geography lesson, we had to cross the High Atlas to get to
Ouarzazate, then on to
Zagora, the Draa Valley and into the Sahara at the end of the road at
M'Hamid. The views were spectacular.
As we were driving through a particularly lonely stretch of road, we come across an older gentleman with car trouble, and after doing a quick assessment of the situation, we deem him safe and give him a lift into the next town (70 km away) so he can get help. Of course, he's thankful and asks us in for tea when we get to his place. Tradition dictates (according to Lonely Planet anyway) that you CANNOT turn down an offer of tea without insulting the person. So we take him up on the offer and have saffron tea with him. One of his cousins was staying with him at the time, who happens to be a Berber/Touareg caravan leader who still makes caravan treks to Mauretania, Mali and Niger on a regular basis. We were dressed in some Berber outfits for a photo op and went merrily on our way.
The drive from Marrakech to M'Hamid at the end of the road is some 450km, and I rather underestimated this due to the long stretches of twisty mountain roads where you rarely go over 50 km/h. We make it in to M'Hamid around 7:30 about when it starts to get dark and fortunately find a guide/desert thingy operator that was still open to do a desert overnight. We hammer out a deal and get an overnight in the desert, a camel ride, and a guide for a 4x4 trek into the Sahara for what works out to $75 each, dinner, breakfast and lunch included.
The night in the desert (no dunes here, but far enough away from civilization to see the stars in twilight) was very quiet. It did seem to be a general area where other operators took tourists because you did see similar camps out in the distance. A French couple got lost stargazing some time around 11pm and stumbled into our little neck of the woods by accident. I of course, firmly believing in karma, help them out by grabbing a flashlight and escorting them toward one of the lit camps. Anyhow, peaceful.
The next day started out with camel racing... self explanatory... Camels can be cranky and make the most unsettling noises.
The best part of the day was the 4x4 expedition about 70km into the actual Sahara via bumpy and sand logged trails. Before you tree huggers get at me for being environmentally unfriendly, there are countless little settlements along the edge of the Sahara that rely on 4x4 access for supplies and whatnot, so it wasn't just us destroying nature.
The little Toyota didn't get stuck once, although I did have to kick it in to 4x4 low range to get out of the many sand pits that had to be crossed. It was a bumpy ride that saw lunch at an outpost some 70km from town at the Erg Chigaga dunes.
In general, seatbelt use in Morocco is almost non existent and nowhere do people use them. We were always securely belted in the whole time on the road and on the trail, except for the guide that went off road with us. There was one point where I was getting a little more confident in my capabilities and the Toyota was bouncing around a bit on the uneven trail. I think I scared the guide a bit at one point when he started to tug at his seat belt in a futile attempt to put it on. Of course, when the road is rough the seatbelt tends to lock and he couldn't actually pull it out. Ahem... hehe..
Anyway, we get back to civilization (relatively) and asphalt roads and make our way back to Marrakech. We do stop at in the Draa Valley to look at the oasis in the desert. The Draa Valley is known to the locals as the Valley of 3 million palms. And they're probably right. It stretches several hundred km along the Draa River.
I was hoping to outrun the oncoming darkness and was actually making good time. I really didn't want to drive the narrow twisty roads of the Atlas Mountains in the dark, but the sun set just before we hit the highest pass and the way down had to be done at night. This especially when the roadside safety standards for Moroccan roads are slightly lower than those of Ontario's. There were plenty of locations where there was a barrier between the road and a 2,000 foot drop, and there were more locations where there was NO barrier between the road and a 4,000 foot drop. I can proudly say now that I survived driving a Moroccan mountain road at night. We got in to Marrakech at 11pm.
On a sort of sad note, we came across a spot on the road where several vehicles had stopped and people were out standing at the side of the dropoff looking down. As we drove by, I saw that there was a crumpled truck that had apparently gone off the side and was resting on a ledge some 100ft below. We didn't stick around, there were plenty of people there and I can only hope it wasn't tragic.
Anyhow, tomorrow we relax, see a bit of Marrakech and get ready to return to Spain for the last week of our expedition.
