Today we took a trip into the desert with Mohammed and his Toyota 4×4 and what an experience. The roads that left our camp were just gravel, sand and rocks. I had always imagined desert to be just sand but it was flat with boulders and rocks and hardly anything else, just the occasional tree of some hardy looking shrubs. Its bumpy, very bumpy as the Toyota crashed over the rocks. Then we hit the sand and the drive gets softer although you can feel the car being pulled about by the tracks in the sand. We were being followed by a couple in their 4×4 camper as Mohammed guided them through the desert. We stopped off when we came across something of interest , an oasis then some gazelles.
The sand dunes came into sight, Erg Chegaga, the largest sand dunes in Morocco, like small mountains of sand. We stopped off at the camp, had tea and explored the dunes. Lunch consisted of a Moroccan salad with bread and a Kofta and egg tagine. Followed by fruit for dessert. We relaxed on the cushions in the sun before our journey back.
The route back was different from the way out. It was more sandy and we stopped off where there were lots of rocks on the surface and Mohammed showed us fossils in the rocks.
The couple in the 4×4 camper still following us and at one point got stuck in the sand. A quick dig out and we were off again.
We arrived back at our camp around 6pm, and ready for a shower. Desert travel really does get the sand everywhere.
Tomorrow, Dylan, our van gets a tattoo…
