Life's a Stitch

Have we only been in Morocco for two days? We've done so much in that time. Back to the camel ride. We gallomphed into the sunset in our caravan until we arrived at camp. Actually we were heading out of the sunset but 'into' sounds better.

Look at their soft little two toed feet, not shod like horses. Speaking of camels and horses, we saw both on the menu as burgers in Marrakech restaurants. No way!

Although it only took an hour and a half to get to camp, it was not without incident. You have to be somewhat fit to ride a camel, it's definitely a body stressor. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with lower back or hip issues.

A woman toward the front of the line, one who appeared maybe not in the best of shape started complaining of back pain. A couple of minutes later she passed out on the camel. It's a long way down to fall, but the guides managed to get her off without injury. She came to, had a little vomit session and felt much better. She was still overheated and carsick from the ten hour trip; throw in some serious back pain and voila, slumped on the hump of a camel on the Sahara. 

She walked the rest of the way as did four people the next morning who refused to mount their single hump steeds. Seriously, one young gentleman couldn't make it for dinner that night due to pain. If you ever ride a camel I have one piece of advice: don't grip with your knees.

I was pleasantly surprised that the camels weren't stinky nor did we experience any spitting dromedaries. They were sweet, placid creatures.

Meanwhile, back at camp, we were shown to our tents which contained four single beds, blankets and a pillow. Another suggestion: bring a sleeping bag liner as there are no sheets. C and I had a tent to ourselves. The bath house was separated, male and female, and contained showers and three stalls each with toilets that flushed twice during our stay. There was also a sandpit for burning toilet paper.

Not exactly glamping, but there were electric lights and a power bar in the dining tent to charge our cameras.

The Berber style camp was nearly full with 28 campers and a half dozen staff. We had a delicious dinner in a central dining tent: sweet and strong Berber tea, harira (a blended lentil soup), flat bread, chicken tagine with lots of carrots and potatoes and tangerines for dessert. Nobody went away hungry. What a change from Spain: no wine, pork ham or Diet Coke for days.

Canpfire followed with the staff performing Berber drumming and songs.

Without any light pollution the sky was filled with stars. The Milky Way was in view and we watched shooting stars over the Sahara. I was glad to have the Night Sky app on my phone, which works via GPS and requires no connection,  to let us identify the constellations overhead. 

We were invited to drag our mattresses onto the desert to sleep under the stars, but we passed, as there were very occasional sprinkles of rain that blew quickly away. 

Tomorrow: the trip back.