Ok so yesterday I left off where I exited the tour van to head out on my own into Ouarzazate. (If you missed Part: 1, here it is! @heiditravels/14-days-in-north-africa-part-1)
Oh the Al Waha Hotel. I will be staying here for many more nights then I could have expected. I was greeted by a really sweet girl working the front desk, I pieced together that this hotel is run by her father and mother. I immediately felt a sense of solidarity with her. I myself grew up working at my father's business along with my mother and two brothers. I liked this place already. And that was before she handed me a fresh roll of toilet paper and a clean towel! (If you can't understand why this would get me excited, check out my other post: @heiditravels/culture-shocked)
I take a mostly cold shower, hot water lasted about 2 minutes then began the old familiar countdown of warmth that ends with goosebumps and shivers. As I wander around Ouarzazate, or as I've come to say it in my head: "Oh where's my hat" I come across another travel agency. Since I managed to get a good deal with my money last time, I figured I'd see where I can go with this guy. His name is Farouk and he asks me if I'd be interested in staying a night in "The Beautiful Sahara". As a matter of fact I would! He explains that his family lives in a historic casbah near the Sahara and I could stay with them for a few nights also. For only $40 a night, I would get a nice room to stay, and breakfast and dinner cooked for me each day. Yup, sign me up!
The next morning I'm in Farouk's 4x4 and we're driving to the Sahara. He puts in a cd and we're jamming out to some really cool Moroccan music, it's got a singer with a smooth voice and a really cool percussionist, I like it. I nearly forgot that Farouk was a travel agent/tour guide. Of course he too had predetermined stops along the way where I had to awkwardly deny buying small pottery and geodes. It's especially awkward when you're the only one around.
It's a 4 hour drive to his family's casbah, the half-way point to the Sahara. We park near a structure very similar to Ait Benhaddou and I'm feeling like I'm really out of my comfort zone. He leads me through narrow tunnels and dark passageways until we reach the home of his mother. She leads Farouk and I up to the rooftop where I can fully take in the view.
She serves us roasted peanuts and the famous Berber whiskey- it's really mint tea with a lot of sugar. Since Morocco is a Muslim country, alcohol is prohibited. This is their take on Irish whiskey ;) I drink up and get my snack on. Soon enough I say goodbye- I'm so ready to see what the Sahara has in store for me!
Ok so the entrance to the Great Sahara is a bit anticlimactic. I see a sign that is half blown over that says "Sahara Desert"... or something to that effect. I'm not sure really what I was expecting, but I know I wasn't thinking that the first 3 miles or so into the Great Sahara it would be filled with Hotels and tourist agencies and construction. It's probably all those movies I've been watching that set my expectations... (Damn you Ouarzazate!) They tell me I will now ride a camel to the campsite. They're a lot more fun to mount then a horse that's for sure. You hop on when they are kneeling then first comes up the hind legs, sending you lunging forward to the point you think you'll tumble right onto the poor thing's head, then the the front legs come up and suddenly your about 15 feet in the air.
After 5 minutes my ass is ready to get out of the saddle. A 30 minute camel ride leads me to the camp site. I'm not alone here! There's a group of older French ladies who are gearing up for an 8 hour walk into the heart of the Sahara- that's the real Sahara. Truly desolate, with 50 foot sand dunes. I think of an 8 hour camel ride and I can't help but cringe.
The first thing I do, after getting familiar with my surroundings, is take a walk. I'm on a mission to find the tallest sand dune and plop down to watch the sunset. Just as I spot the winner and make my way half way up the face I realize that those old Frenchies are climbing up the other side. For a moment I feel like I'm playing king of the hill. They all sit in silence and are having some sort of cathartic experience and I realize that my ears are ringing. So incredibly loudly. I look around, there are no cars, airplanes, people or any hint of civilization around me. I realize the ringing is due to the complete lack of sound. It's almost deafening. It's like my ears don't know what to do with themselves.
The sun sets and I'm left to be amazed at the number of stars in the sky. They take up every inch of the darkness above. After about an hour of stargazing I'm suddenly I'm paranoid of some monster coming out of the sand like in the movie "Tremors" so I head back towards camp.
I eat the dinner prepared and get in my little cabin. About 20 minutes into my sleep, I feel a critter crawl across my face. My knee jerk response of course is to smack it. To my horror it was a big one, it felt juicy when I wiped it across my forehead in the pitch black. I sat there for a minute not moving. Horrified at the thought of the bug guts sure to be all over my face at this point. And then the realization that it was probably a spider. I immediately assumed it was one of those camel spiders, the kind that looks like an alien. I'm imagining that I didn't kill it and it's now angry and out for revenge. I jump out of bed and start dancing around my 5ft high ceiling cabin trying not to hit my head while at the same time trying to ensure that the thing doesn't get me. I use my flashlight on my phone and determine that it wasn't on me or my bed. I finally fell back asleep to wake up the next day, ready to head back to that lovely casbah where I'd have a nice room with a proper shower and a home cooked meal.
Click the link to read Part: 3! @heiditravels/14-days-in-north-africa-part-3