Weekend in the Desert
Last weekend, a bunch of us exchange students decided to adventure out to southeastern Morocco, near the Algeria border. And what an adventure it was! After packing into a small van at 630am, we headed off to Marrakech for a tagine lunch then the adventure really started.
To get to our next destination of Ouarzazate, you need to go through the mountains. I have never been so afraid that I was going to die. The driver was driving at breakneck speeds on these windy mountain roads, passing other cars by swerving into oncoming traffic. And to make things even worse, it was right after lunch so as soon as we stopped, all of us were feeling super queasy, but thankful to be alive.
Once we got into the region of Ouarzazate, we got to see the magnificent Kasbah (fortress) Ait BenHaddou which is now used as a movie set. This is the area where the Daenerys scenes from Game of Thrones are filmed, as well as where Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, and many other films were shot. I can’t describe in words how beautiful it is, so here are some pictures.
After that, we headed to Ouarzazate. Now our trip was organized by the Lion’s Club of Rabat, an international service club, so a portion of the cost went to provide clothes to abandoned and street kids in this region. That night, the organizer asked a few of us if we wanted to go see where our money was going, so we all hopped in the van to go to this school. It was such an amazing experience! Seeing the faces of these primary school kids light up when they saw all the clothes and snacks the Lion’s Club gave was amazing! I got talking in my broken Arabic/French/Darija to some of them about soccer (the national conversation in Morocco) and they knew everything. They could tell you every player on any of the major teams in Morocco or Europe as well as how each team did in their last match! It was such an uplifting experience, I really want to stay involved with this project.
After that, we headed back to the hotel for Moroccan dance and drumming, which was so cool!
Followed by dinner and then singalong with a guitar. Then we went to bed because we had another long day ahead of us.
Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast, then piled back into the van for the next leg of the journey. We first went to the Todgha Gorge, which is a river inside a massive canyon.
After this stop, and lunch we headed off to the desert. After even more driving, we ended up in Merzouga, which is basically the last town before the Sahara, that evening. Here, we bought scarves to protect from the sun and sand, then headed on camels towards the camp in the middle of the sahara.
Being in the desert was a magical experience. We could see millions and millions of stars. I got to see my first shooting star which was super cool. We also got to try sandboarding in the dark (aka falling off a sandboard and rolling down a dune).
Travelling by camel was an amazing experience, but it’s much harder than it looks. The camel is consistently rocking back and forth and moves less evenly than a horse. This makes taking selfies a liability, thankfully got a few good ones.
Finally, getting to see the moonrise and sunrise were so magical. We often forget, in our busy lives, the beauty of the sky. This trip was such an amazing experience which I’ll never forget. Major shoutout to Morjane and crew for putting it together!
On an unrelated note, I just booked my first international weekend trip. Off to Portugal November 6th weekend!