Most of us woke up with the sun. We hiked up the sand dunes again – this time sticking to the hard-packed ridges, sensibly – to watch the sunrise. It was a bit overcast and therefore hard to see, but there’s still not much that compares to sunrise in the Sahara.
Getting on the camels to ride back to the base lodge was much more painful the second day. Yesterday’s bruises were aggravated by today’s riding, and all along the camel line there were cries of “no, not more downhill!” (Going downhill on a camel is much more painful than going uphill). By the time we got back to the lodge for breakfast, everyone was a bit worse for wear. Oh well, no permanent damage done. But, while camels may be very practical animals for the desert, I don’t think I’d want one as my primary mode of transportation.
After breakfast, we had a few minutes to de-sand as much as possible before loading the bags onto the bus for the drive back to Erfoud. We stopped off to see a fossil workshop, where fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old were made into tables and fountains and trinkets (“good price!”).
We had lunch in the small town of Tinejad, home to the Oasis Museum of Berber life. The exhibits were arranged in a traditional Berber construction, and contained several hundred years of history of the region. It was fairly interesting, though museums definitely don’t compare to the real-life experiences.
After lunch, we drove to the Todra Gorge area. We stopped first in the main town in the area for necessities like ATM and wine with dinner. The latter was available at a bottle shop whose entrance was buried surreptitiously around the corner from a supermarket. Wine, beer and spirits are readily available in Morocco, but you need to be discreet about them; as a Muslim country, they’re frowned upon to say the least, and the whole experience of buying them makes you feel vaguely like you’re doing something shady. Despite that, they actually make some fairly decent local wines.
Our hotel for the next two nights is more like a resort, with a swimming pool and several terrace areas, not to mention an amazing view of the rocks just near Todra Gorge. Aziz, our trainee guide, used to manage this hotel, so he knows all the staff and everyone has been really friendly. This is our chill-out spot – the vacation from the vacation, so to speak. Everyone was really grateful to have a hot shower and wash off the desert sand.
The desert has its own smell, and it’s palpable here. It’s sort of a combination of dust and sand and the various constructions of the area. Watching the sunset from the rooftop terrace of the hotel, I could feel it all around me, just breathing in the local air. This ain’t Kansas, Dorothy.
After dinner, we crowded around the satellite TV with the hotel staff to watch the Madrid versus Barcelona match. (Barcelona won 2-0, for anyone who cares about these things). Unfortunately, the Habs-Leafs game was not available on local TV – not exactly shocking – but there is limited Internet here so I’ll at least be able to check the score. Go Habs Go!