Fes – El Rissani – Merzouga – Erg Chebbi, Morocco

Welcome to the 2 part special Edition where Elys and I bring you as close to our desert adventure as the internet allows.

Leaving Fes around 9 we were departing on a 9 hour bus ride out to the El Rissani. Of course Elys passed out for the entire ride and left me to write blog entries and look out the window at nothing but darkness. At times the ride seemed to get sketchy when our bus would honk and violently swerve away from oncoming headlights, but no one else was awake to see it so I guess it never happened.

The first light of morning revealed a bit more of the landscape which began to much more bleak and traded the lush greens of up north for for the browns and yellows fitting of the desert. The bus by early morning made it into El Rissani where we met up with out transport to the hostel out in Merzouga. No roads lead to the hostel so they stuck us into 4X4’s and drove us over long expanses of nothingness, except for the occasional rock there wasn’t too much to see out here, only ponder.

At first sight the dunes just simply did not look real. The hostel sat right on the fringe where the dirt flat met the sand and it was hard to look away. We were given a few hours to shower and rest up before we would trek out into the desert, but we took that time to do a little exploring of the desert ourselves. A group of us that would be later going on the excursion got together for some fun in the desert.

Walking on the dunes was a strange feeling and I think everyone had a hard time making sense of where we actually were. We made it out mission to climb the tallest dune in sight to check out the view…easier said then done. In places the sand is hard packed and easy to walk on but take another step and your sunken ankle deep in the stuff. Walking across the peaks of the dunes the sand cascades down the edge as if it were water. The excitement drove us all up to the peak, at the top we all seemed to be a bit winded. Taking a single breath is enough to suck the moisture right out of you. It was a vast sea of sand, the waves carved into the dunes, emptied skies sitting on top of it all. The wind was roaring and the sand whipped harshly against skin.

Wiped and beaten from a night of travel and a blurb up the dunes we took the fastest way down…Falling. When back at the hostel it was impossible to get rid of the sand, it was literally everywhere and even filled our pockets to the brim. We cleaned up and kicked back for a few hours until it was time to meet the camels in head to the camp in the desert.

Our caravan made its way slowly and surely lead by our guide, clad in the blue of the desert people. Me and my camel, Gekko, had some time to bond and get to know each other before we arrived at camp. Camel rides defiantly do a number on the nether region as well.

Camp consisted of a few tents tucked into the dunes. Before dinner we did a bit more exploring and tried our hand at sandboarding which was once again a great way to get sand up the shorts. we watched the sun drop below the dunes and the stars come out to take over the sky.

After our dinner our guide asked us to join him to climb Erg Chebbi, the great dune that sat just east of our camp. setting off in the pitch black navigating by the stars the dune sat as just a giant silhouette. as we climb we cut its grander bit by bit eventually making it to the top and watching the lightning storm off in the distance. A storm would be coming in later in the night, we were told by our guide. The hike down consisted of falling, tripping and sliding. In camp it was decided that we were going to forget the tents and spend the night sleeping under the stars.