Today we leave for the Sahara, in the morning we drive through the valley of the Oued Ziz
and just before Errachida along the reservoir behind the Barrage Hassan Addakhil.
As we move away from the Atlas, we left early on purpose, it becomes warmer and drier, although there are a few raindrops on the way. (Marc has had three on his head, one on his glasses). Along the way we came across two of Miladies brothers, two old Moroccan Land Rover Santana’s.
From afar we see the red dunes of the Sahara all, it’s a little foggy and strong winds from time to time.
Long before Merzouga there are signs and people to point us to accommodation. We have chosen Le Petit Prince on the Garmin. The patron welcomes us with open arms and invites us to have drink tea and relax, we could better set up our tent later (it’s about 2PM). The tea is delicious and we also get chilled watermelon. For lunch we take the bread we bought on the go with cheese and grapes.
The patron joins us for tea and asks about our plans for the coming days. When he hears we also want to drive the dunes, he suggests that we go along with his brother Said to their camp in the dunes. We can do some off-road driving and need only a short ride in the dunes. For 300 dirhams per person we meet the package, including dinner and breakfast.
We leave at 6pm towards the desert, a short stretch of the asphalt road and then immediately into the sand … That just teams with the tires at 3.5 bar. Furthermore, we drive over varied terrain with gravel. Eventually we arrive at the foot of the dune and ride the trail of a predecessor. Fortunately Said recommends to reduce the load (my passengers get off) and we lower the tire pressure at 1 bar. Milady then whistles into the sand and the dunes to the camp (a few hundred meters).
The night was cloudy and again a few raindrops fall, fortunately not at Marcs glasses. We walk the dune but the sun is behind the clouds. I see our camp mates driving their camels, two Filipinos, they tell us later that the first 15 minutes on the camel were nice, but their butt hurted badly the rest of the time (and they need to go bakc the same way tomorrow…).
At 22:30 finally dinner is served, we are all starving, a “salad” of hot vegetables and a tagine of vegetables and chicken and vegetables for Sonja. It tastes fine. Then we are treated to a concert of djembes and other percussion instruments. Well after midnight we seek our bed, it really is still hot in the tents and it does not cool down during the night.