MOROCCO 2007: Americans in Morocco — Day 7: Somewhere in the Sahara (20 kilometers south of Erfoud and about 30 minutes north of Erg Chebbi – the golden dunes. December 27, 2007

Hi All –

Left our “wonderful” abode in Midelt (the one with the orange shag carpets and aqua closets – Guess every culture has some bad taste!).. after a pretty rotten breakfast (thank god for some yogurt and tangerines we picked up) and headed into the desert. Quite a drive. We are now totally happy with our huge SUV- 4-wheel drive. Climbed to a height of about 6,000 ft, driving along curvy roads a bit reminiscent of driving to Mendocino on Hwy 1 (just not as good a road, and not as much protection on the edge of the road. The landscape was desertlike.. a bit like Northern Arizona or Colorado, and the outcroppings a bit like Sedona, but not as red.

Along the way you pass semi-deserted villages and ruins.. most look like sandcastles coming out of nowhere.. Very little is being preserved, so these settlements are in terrible shape – literally crumbling. The vestiges of many aspects of the special Moroccan way of life – Kasbahs, fortified villages, luxurious residences, etc. are literally crumbling. It seems as if the government lists these places as important, but does nothing to preserve them..  Every so often you stumble upon “palmeries” – rows of lush palms (mostly date palms) along river beds, with somewhat newer settlements having been built among the trees. .. Really lush and green amid this arid reddish-brown scene.  Between these villages, it all feels like desert moonscapes.. except for the incredible number of plastic bags caught in branches and rocks, and just strewn or blown everywhere. Our guess is that locals dump garbage in flat areas and most contents either disintegrate or get eaten  by animals.. but those pesky plastic bags just last forever – even here in a country with little real waste and maximum reuse.  It’s really an ugly sight.

I forgot to mention in previous messages that satellite dishes are everywhere.. providing communication and television access. Another one of those strange contradictions.  Anyway, we drove (and stopped constantly to photograph) for about six hours (though only about 120 miles).. through Er Rich, Er Rachidia, and eventually Erfoud. and then the road ended and we drove about 12 miles on somewhat rugged terrain using some occasional white posts as markers.. to find our “hotel”.. Derkoua (about 24 km south east of Erfoud, en route to the dunes)..

It’s a sweet little place, sort of rambling rammed earth “cottages”-pretty basic, but we have heat, a bamboo ceiling (a little like the pool cover at the Phoenix house), and electricity.. and my Blackberry is like the little Energizer bunny.. working everywhere.

This message will come to you a few days late.. My system for sending is a bit complicated – since some people asked – I type on the computer, save on a thumb drive, transfer the document to an email on the hotel computer and send to myself.. Then I forward that email that comes to you on my blackberry.  I cannot send directly from the hotel computer because it is really difficult to type with the French/Arabic keyboard – I don’t even want to explain how I get to my website and to my email through the Internet at the hotel. Anyway, tonight’s hotel doesn’t have a computer, and last night’s hotel was totally untrustworthy. So, hopefully this travelogue and yesterday’s will go out from Skoura – our last stop before heading to Marakesh.

We checked in quickly.. and headed out to Erg Chebbi – the main point for seeing and being in the dunes. We had hoped to do one of the (more modest) camel treks (the short one or two hour one) but we stopped too often on the drive to Erfoud and so only got to see and walk in the dunes which stretch more than 20 miles and soar to 820 feet. The drive to the dunes was interesting.. all off road.. sort of make your own path and hope your tracks will be there when you turn around. It was about a 30 minute drive. You couldn’t really see anything except dessert/dunes for miles.. We stayed about 40 minutes and then retraced the route (sort of). because it was dusk and we were a bit concerned about finding our way back to Derkoua (which is pretty much about 20 miles from nowhere).

I failed to mention that no matter where you stop or slow down.. in seemingly empty places – where there isn’t a person or a structure in sight – out from nowhere pops up a person trying to sell something.. In this area it’s fossils and minerals (which are abundant). Yesterday it was hand carved objects. Always they can take you somewhere to buy a rug – or “just to look and have some mint tea!”..  Indeed we pulled off the road to photograph the landscape and another car pulled up soon after .. By the time we had turned off our engine, a guy was trying to sell us a decorative little camel he made out of palm leaves.. and then the guy driving the other car started a conversation – he was Moroccan, from a town called Rissani.. driving a Mercedes. His English was halting but not bad.. so he asked about our trip, where we came from and where we were headed etc. etc.. all small talk.

As Mike and I got back into our car.. I saw that Mike had succumbed to the palm camel.. and the driver of the Mercedes was inviting us to his home to “look at carpets.”..  We did not do the latter, but we now have a little palm camel. Mike felt the guy really needed the money (true) and that he had an unfortunate marketing position up there in the mountains on this small road!  As we reapproached the hotel after being out on the dunes.. young girls appeared also from out of nowhere in the dessert.. selling stuffed camels that they sewed themselves. (supposedly).. They were just too cute and sad for us to ignore, so now we also have several stuffed camels, made out of remnants of cloth..   I also found out that Mike bought two fossils and “sand roses” yesterday. Don’t know where I am when all these big business transactions are going on. We are totally in the dark with regard to world and national news.. but just got an email saying that Bhutto has been assassinated. What a shame.

All our best – Fern

P.S. Ignore process. Figured out how to do as note in Backberry.