Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

I've reached a wonderful point. Morocco feels like home; sights that used to make me do a double take, like the spice souk or seeing strawberries pushed on a cart down a busy street, seem a bit normal. So, of course, I'm delighted to report that just when I think I have a sense of what Morocco looks like, smells like, feels like... we go on an adventure. In 5 days, we experienced two mountain ranges (the middle and high atlas mountains) and the Sahara desert...and saw a new side of this wonderful place.

I'm going to mention a special group of people, the Berbers, a few times in this posting. "Berber" can be seen as a derogatory term, so I will be careful there; however, in Morocco I've heard no other general term used for these diverse people. The Berbers were the first inhabitants of Morocco, and the history I've read and heard tells that they assimilated peacefully with the Arabs long ago. Many Moroccans are at least part Berber, and a great number are completely Berber. While the main languages in Morocco are Moroccan Arabic (called "Moroccan" by the locals) and French, each group of Berber uses their own language. There are different Berber tribes in the Middle Atlas, the High Atlas, and the desert. There are even real-life nomadic Berbers. On our trip, we meet Berbers and visit Berber villages...

Day 1:
The Middle (Moyen) Atlas mountains house the famous cedar forests and, believe it or not, monkeys in the cedar trees. We missed the monkeys because of torrential rain, and missed taking the road we wanted for this same rain causing much flooding. A plus to the rain: we saw rainbows so low that we could run for the pot of gold on either end.

Did you know that Ifrane, a town in the Middle Atlas, used to be the home for a species of lion? I am told that the Romans stole them to use them in the Coliseum. There are no more lions in Morocco.

It's hard to believe that after 14 hours on train and bus from Casablanca we can arrive in Merzouga, a desert town much further South. The most eventful thing for me was seeing my first mirage over the desert; I sympathize with those wandered and lost who think they're seeing an oasis.

Day 2:
Woke up to really take in our surroundings. We are sleeping in a kasbah (not a real one, but they called it that) with mud/straw walls and a view of large desert dunes out the window.  Check out our backyard seating:

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Here's our mud-walled hotel room:

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

good morning, camel!

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

I seriously questioned that the desert can feel warm after being in chilly Casablanca; but the desert is a warm place in February! I can't imagine how much hotter it must get to allow the Berbers to make "pizza" called medfouna. Medfouna is made traditionally under the hot Saharan sand, without fire. The medfouna we ate was similar to a calzone, filled with chicken, mushrooms, onions, and of course, cumin.  Below, you can see our Berber host serving Medfouna (this one was made in an oven).

Tom and I bargained for an old wooden door with camel bone inlaid in the shape of a tree. My "best price" wasn't good enough, so we departed with the group. One thing led to another, and our group leader, Mohamed, was on the phone with the shopkeeper helping us bargain some more. Our door was delivered to our kasbah the next day.  

Finally- time for the Sahara desert! We rode into the desert at sunset, riding our camels and enjoying the colorful transformation of dunes and sky. With no light pollution, we marveled at the stars, a ring around the moon, and seeing Mars. At the desert oasis (which was a small grove of trees in the middle of lots of sand), we enjoyed climbing to the top of the tall dune near our tent, chatting with our friends in the large tent, eating tagine and harira, and making music with the "blue men"- the Berber group from this area.

Youssef, a "Blue Man", who is 19.

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Warming the drums

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Making music

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

When you sleep in the desert, here's what you hear: camels making all sorts of weird noises (sounding very similar to Star Wars creatures, I tell you), cats fighting, Mohammed snoring, and in between, total silence.

Day 3:
We awaken before sunrise in the brisk desert morning, pack up, and enjoy seeing the sun rise over the dunes while wincing at the pain from bumping around on a camel for another bit of time.

The head of our caravan

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

I don't have many pictures of this, but found passing through the Toudra gorge to be amazing. Kasbahs, palm trees, and a quiet city are nestled in this fantastic gorge. I hope to return to this spot for more nature and more exploring. (A Kasbah is a fortified villages where many families can live in community. They are historical places where Berbers and Arabs lived together.) Here's a dorky picture of Tom and I in front of one of many kasbahs in this town.

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

We arrive in Ouarzazate, a city famed for its film studio. Many films, including Star Wars, Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Mummy, have been filmed in this studio. (The movie Babel was filmed nearby.) Exploring the area, you can see the kasbah where the main character in Gladiator was being trained as a slave. It's disorienting to stand in the desert backed by snow-capped peaks and looking at a castle surrounded by catapults. We enjoyed the area by riding 4-wheelers around the film area.


Parts of Gladiator were filmed in this kasbah in Ouarzazate

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Day 4
I'm amazed at the contrast between different sides of the High Atlas mountains. We begin on the Southeastern front, where the dirt is red and naked mountains (no trees!) are dotted with earth-colored homes and a very windy road. I'm amazed that people can live here, with seemingly inhospitable land.

A typical building on this side of the High Atlas

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Our mountain roller-coaster bus group

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Passing over the mountains, I notice that the other side is green, lush, and pastoral. 

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

The arabic words on the bottom left of this truck say: Life is a lesson and Time is the teacher. I was trying to not be carsick at this point (we've been winding through the mountains for at least an hour)

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

On the other side of the mountains, five of us depart from the group to take another day out. Tom returns to Marrakech with the others while I hop in a taxi to go to the Ourika valley. A few funny things happened with our taxi. First, the old thing wouldn't start, so about 6 Moroccan men pushed our car through the taxi lot to get it running. After driving a bit, our taxi driver dropped us off at a dirty river in the town of Ourika- not the valley of waterfalls we were looking for. After a bit, we made it to Setti Fadma, a Berber village on a river in a valley, literally at the end of the road. A hotel owner stops us and offers us a room for 5 for only 250 MAD (that's 50MAD a person, or $7/night). The only downside was that there was no heat for the cold night. 

Day 5

We enjoyed exploring the village (perhaps it's name was Asgour?). I was amazed and unnerved at the little makeshift bridges across the river, and enchanted by the tables and chairs set up in the streams. 

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Kat, Jenny, Me, and Johnna enjoy mint tea on a Berber rug by a river

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

We follow the local recommendation to hire a guide to hike for 3 hours to see the falls in the valley. Our guide was very conscientious, helping us cross rivers and scale wet rocky cliffs. enjoy hiking around Setti Fadma. I was extremely thankful to be surrounded by nature, fresh air, and to raise my heart rate with a climb. Every once in awhile, nature is interrupted by a man with a table full of wares: necklaces, silver, carved alabaster. We saw seven of the falls, and reached a vantage point that allowed us to see the Berber village below. Our guide informed us that for 30 kilometers into the mountain, there are many Berber villages. People hike along the hillsides to come to Setti Fadma for necessities; there's a market each Sunday. Welcome to a different life. 

View of the Berber village

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Jenny puts the falls in perspective

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

Mmmm. Mint Tea.

From Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

...And back 60 kilometers to Marrakech and 3 hours on a train to Casablanca. I love Morocco.

-Karissa