Thursday was busy- we had breakfast at our private hotel. That was just so weird and formal. The food was fine and the people were nice and the bed was comfortable. It was just a strange vibe. We didn't really understand how the day would go but we left our luggage at the hotel and drove toward a village called Rissani. A busy, scruffy little village. Apparently, the whole area was part of the ocean 500 million years ago, so there are fossils everywhere. We went to one place where they were trying to sell coffee table-sized slabs with fossils all over it. Then we went to a small museum where we got a better idea of what it was all about.
From there we went to a weekly market that was just amazing. People and donkeys and bicycles making their way through crowded aisles of produce and meat. The noises and the smells were intense and invigorating.
We also visited a small, pretty mausoleum and then went back to the hotel, where we had a rest and then lunch and then we switched into a 4-wheel drive vehicle (a Range Rover- I was expecting something more like a Jeep) and drove on a seemingly endless straight 2-lane road and then turned left somewhere and next thing you know, we were entering the desert. Haj, our driver, seemed to sometimes use the usual tracks and sometimes would veer off to try to find something smoother. It reminded us of when we were in Costa Rica and our driver almost completely ignored the lanes of the potholed road and drove on the dirt on the side.
Eventually, we stopped and were loaded (I’m not sure there’s a better word) onto camels for the last 200 yards or so. This was sort of fun but we were happy to dismount.
The camels dropped us at the campsite and then the guy who is leading them, offered me a bunch of merchandise for sale. I was going to give him a tip anyway, so I bought a little bottle to keep some Sahara sand in. We got a tour of our Tent, which included a little bathroom and I guess you can call it a shower and a toilet. If there had been extra time, I would have tried the shower out, but the day just didn't work like that.
We then got on the camels again and went up to a dune to take in the sunset. At some point, some sand got in the mechanism that opens my camera lens, so from then on it was phone camera only, which is fine for snaps.
It was quite beautiful and Ronnie took pictures and I took pictures and I took pictures of Ronnie taking pictures and we had a nice time.
By the time we went back, we were no longer enjoying the camel ride, which I'm guessing anybody who's ridden the camel can relate to. Our host, Mohammed, then led us up to the top of a small dune to have a glass of wine and just watch the sky and the sand and the changes in color and shadows.
We came back to the campsite and had some musical entertainment by five men from the village, all with percussion instruments and singing, and at one point, of course, getting us up to dance. We were a little concerned that they were going to have a group of entertainers just for us and that it would feel weird, but it turned out to be low-key enough that it wasn't embarrassing. They played some things that sounded more like chants than songs, but they were still rhythmic and interesting. They had percussion instruments and one of them played a kind of lute. Our guide said the music was kind of cross-cultural African.
After that, it was time for dinner. Dinner was a tagine, which is typical for Morocco and ubiquitous in tourist restaurants. Easily 2/3 of my non-breakfast meals have been tagine or chicken brochette. They're both fine, and this one was pretty nice. It had lamb shanks I think with prunes and some couscous and vegetables. I honestly don't remember the details. I was happy that we had good food and wine.
We hung out at the table while our Guide told us a bit of his story. He talks a lot, and I asked him how he became a tour guide, which I'm sure to him sounded like I was offering him an opportunity to give us his life history, so that's pretty much what he did. It was interesting; he's an interesting guy. He has done enough different things that he said no matter what happened, he'd be able to find a job. He's an academic, having translated books into classical Arabic. I think he said he sold real estate for a while. He said he has a facility with languages and speak several, with English, probably being his worst. And his English is fine
We retired to the tent. We had been misinformed about the temperature in that place. We had been told all along that it gets cold at night in the desert. We brought jackets and such, but it never got anything that approached cold, and the tent was kind of warm and they were heavy blankets. We managed to get a little bit of sleep once it cooled down slightly and it was unbelievably quiet.
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