Sahara Meditation 1

Day 1 ~ February 28

Our Sahara time has been a plan in the making for the past few years. It was amazing to us that this plan was actually becoming reality, and we both felt eager anticipation to meet Brahim, our guide, Mohamed, our driver, and M’barek, our cook. When we met, we immediately connected with everyone. We parked our rental car where it would be safe while we were away and headed out in a 4x4 toward the desert. Our first stop was just as we were leaving Zagora to see the marker for the iconic start of the old camel trade route between Zagora and Timbuktu.

The beginning of the ancient Trans-Sahara Camel Caravan Route

We stopped in the last town before going off-road into the desert as we needed to get supplies for the trip. Brahim made sure that both Chris and I each bought a traditional very long, deep blue scarf (called a Sheshe) that is worn in the desert for protection from the heat of sun. The shop keeper put them on our heads for us and, even by the end of the trip, I usually asked Mohamed to put mine on for me!!

Brahim purchased all of our supplies in the last town before we entered the desert. It was amazing that they fit everything for 6 days in this car as well as five of us!

The first part of our journey took us through an area which, located on a tributary of the Draa river, has been developed over the past ten years to grow watermelons, vegetables, alfalfa and wheat. The plots have low mud walls around them and are watered using pumps in wells that are about fifty metres deep. This development is necessary because the last time it rained in this part of Morocco was 6 years ago so the region is in drought. Another factor affecting this region is that, in the 1970s, the government built a dam just north of Ouazazate that was designed to regulate the flow of the Draa river. The result has been that, closer to the dam, clear drinking water is readily available and valleys of date palms and vegetable crops thrive, but farther south in the desert, an area that used to be inhabited is now empty and dried out, and almost all the moisture and life in it have gone. Before the dam was built, there had been a thriving agricultural community. Now, with climate change being so impactful, we were deeply moved to witness some of the ways that people there are responding. It was also very touching to realize how much on the edge people are living. Without water it is impossible for them to survive. I realized how incredibly fortunate we are where we live in Canada.

It was very striking to see crops growing in such a dry inhospitable place.

One of our beautiful memories of that day was the constant chatter between Mohamed, M’barek and Brahim. We couldn’t understand a word but there was something so comforting for both of us as we listened to them. We often felt that same comfort during the trip, even more so after our camel carer, also named Mohamed, joined us.

After crossing a low range of hills that are part of the Anti-Atlas mountains, we rejoined the main road but soon turned off it again and headed out onto a stony flat plain dotted by acacia trees. Not far from there we came to well with two adult female camels with their young. They soon headed off into the desert. I wished that they would have stayed a bit longer!

We drove a little farther to an area where a lot of wild arugula was growing. Apparently when camels have their young they love to eat arugala. There must have been at least 50 camels and quite a few young ones that were still nursing. What a delightful time we had as we walked among them and experienced their gentle presence.

Our first lunch together under the amazing lone tree.

We drove on and the track dwindled into nothing. From this point on, Mohamed was driving very instinctively as he navigated his way through numerous sand drifts and low dunes. It was amazing to see him handling the challenging driving and to have confidence that he knew where he was going! We certainly felt that we were in the middle of nowhere!

We were surprised when he suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere and everyone except us ran to the top of nearby dunes to look for the camels and their carer that we were supposed to meet. Seeing nothing, they returned to the 4x4 and drove on a bit then repeated the look-out process of stopping and running up the dunes.

M’barek and Mohamed our car driver looking out for Mohamed and the camels.

After about 45 minutes and a few more searches, they located Mohamed, our camel carer, and his four camels (two of his own and two rented from a friend of his) at a well. We had a very warm greeting with Mohamed who is lovingly called “Momo”.

We learned over our time with Momo how much skill it takes to handle camels!

The view of the camel water well in the middle of nowhere!

We then left Momo and the camels and drove for 15 or 20 minutes until Brahim and M'barek settled on a place for us to camp for the night. We were right beside a large tamarisk tree which gave shelter and on which camels love to feed. Mohamed, the driver of the 4x4, had to leave us as he needed to get back to Zagora before dark. It is still a wonder how he navigated the pathless way! Even though he had been with us for only a few hours, we were sad that he was leaving but his job was done.

A happy photo of Mohamed our car driver, M’barek and Chris and I.

Soon after Mohamed left, Momo appeared with the camels and, once settled, he and M’barek proceeded to set up a small frame tent for Chris and me. They both remained so very attentive to us for the whole trip. They made sure, for example, that whenever we lay on the ground at the end of a day's walk, mattresses and large stuffed sacks were placed to support our backs and then, as soon as the camp was set up, they brewed tea for everyone! Pouring tea was an expert process as the spout of the teapot had to be as high above the cup as possible in order to produce a lot of foam on the surface of the tea in the cup. This was a ritual that we quickly grew to love.

M’barek preparing and pouring our tea in the tradition way.

As the perfect photographic light appeared that first evening in the Sahara, Brahim suggested that Chris and I head off to the tallest nearby dune. Before we left, he gave us an instruction that, if ever a sandstorm were to come up, we should stay wherever we were and he would come and get us. With this assurance, we knew that he would be taking very good care of us. It was a challenge to get up on top of the dune as the sand was soft in many places, but once we reached the top, we spent a glorious couple of hours watching the dunes and the camels.

Because camels tend to walk off and can go a long way in a relatively short time, their two front legs are tied close together whenever they are free to wander. At first this hobbling seemed to us to be unkind, but we soon discovered that camels can actually adapt quite well to walking in this way. It was beautiful to watch them wander among the dunes.

Momo came out just before sunset to round them up and take them back to camp. It was so photogenic!!

We really felt like we were in the Sahara desert that evening. We had dreamed about it for so long and here we were!

We went back to our camp and, before long, M'barek and Momo were preparing our supper, Vegetable Tagine. Wow, it was delicious! And what a delight to sit under a tree amidst the sand dunes!

Day 2 ~ February 29

We woke up early the next morning after a pretty good sleep in our tent. A small fire was already ablaze for making tea. M’barek prepared our breakfast, which consisted of bread, jam, oranges and hot green mint tea. It was all placed on one of the camel blankets. It was a lovely ritual each day.

After breakfast, Brahim, Chris and I started out on our first day of walking through the dunes, leaving M'barek and Momo to break camp, load the camels, and then catch up with us. The two camels that belonged to Momo were relatively friendly — the darker one was named Mabrouk (meaning 'congratulations' in Arabic) and the lighter one, Memon ('believer'). We were advised to be more careful around the other two camels as they were not as well trained as Momo’s.

The light was gorgeous this morning. Mubarak as always was on top of the dune scouting out our path.

It was a photographic feast photographing the dunes, camels and our team.

It was so gorgeous to experience these pristine dunes.

M’barek often climbed the highest nearby dune to scout out the territory. Brahim explained that M’barek had been in the military for 30 years so this was a very natural thing for him to do. M'barek's eyesight was better than ours when we were using our binoculars!

Often we stopped on our walks just to take in where we were.

The terrain changed from sand dunes to a flat stony plain with some mud pans that had beautifully developed cracks caused by the sun drying out the ground after a rare rainfall.

Along the way we found some very cracked mud pans with these gorgeous small dunes.

Quite often Momo would stop and let Mabrouk, who was the lead camel, eat certain plants that camels love. Sometimes the other camels were also able to eat. Before the trip began, we had occasionally worried that the walking might be too arduous for us, but now we found we travelled at a leisurely pace and frequently stopped so that Brahim could point out things of interest or describe some geographical feature or historical event.

Brahim was greatly helpful to Dana by pointing out how and where she could get good vantage points for photos. Dana found that desert photography had quite a learning curve so she really appreciated Brahim’s advice.

We reached our next campsite in the early afternoon after having walked about 11 km. We were completely surrounded by dunes and were totally happy to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening there. We were always impressed with how, when we finished walking for the day, Momo and M’barek immediately set up camp, and then made tea and started to cook our food.

This was the day we were introduced to “Berber Pizza.” Cooked in a tagine pot, it contained lots of onions, tomatoes, spices and five eggs all mixed together. It was scrumptious and we came to enjoy it every day of our trip!

Late in the afternoon, we climbed a dune so we could see large far-away dunes — these are some of the photos I took.

One of the camels enjoying the late afternoon sun.

When we got back to camp, Momo was feeding the camels. It was fantastic to see his skill at feeding them in a way that supported the camels' not fighting with each other over food. I always enjoyed watching this!

The two rental camels often fought over food regardless of Momo’s efforts to make it a peaceful time!!

Supper was another Vegetable Tagine which was amazingly delicious as it had been cooked over charcoal which really enhances the flavour. After we had finished eating, we enjoyed watching the beautiful star-lit night sky. There’s a tendency in Morocco to eat late so it wasn’t long before we were in our tent and sleeping. We will continue with our Sahara journey in the next blog post. Thanks for sharing our adventure. Love, Dana and Chris

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