Our first stop was in Ifrane for breakfast. The Moroccans call the town "The Swiss Alps" or "European Town" of Morocco. It is up in the Middle Atlas mountains, so it gets snow. Because of the snow, the houses all have steep peaked roofs (evoking Swiss or European resemblance) rather than the flat-roofed, box-like homes seen everywhere else. They even have a Ski Station up here, but apparently they have no proper machinery to clear the roads, except of course, for the king, who does come to ski.
Not far from Ifrane, we stopped on the side of the road to feed monkeys. They were very accustomed to tourists and had no fear approaching us for food (cherries and peanuts). One was bold enough to snatch the bag of peanuts out of Dave's hand before he had a chance to open it.
After a long drive through the mountains and into the desert we finally reached Merzouga.
We traded the luxury of our AC van to climb on top of camels and head into the hot, dry sand dunes of the Sahara. In a short time, our camel guide led our little caravan where we could no longer see the town and were surrounded by sand banks. We did not feel that we were alone, however, other camel caravans could be seen in the distance and the occasional ATV would pop over a ridge and disappear again.
Before reaching camp, we stopped to climb a little higher by foot, to a ridge to watch the sunset.
Some couldn't resist playing in the giant sandbox.
When we reached our camp, tea was, of course, served.
In the evening, after a tradional Berber dinner we stepped away from the light of our camp to star gaze. The sky was magnificent; suffused with so many celestial beings!
Before bed, we sat around a camp fire and listened while our Berber hosts played drums and sang songs. We even did a little dancing and drumming too.
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