So, Marrakech didn’t Mo-rock my world (thanks for the pun, Marion!), but I had a hunch that just outside the city there were marvelous mountains and villages and streams and desert landscapes to behold. I just knew I’d love it. And I was right.
One morning at dawn, four of us climbed into an SUV and headed out of town to experience something I’ve dreamed of doing my whole life. Float in the sky, with no roof or cover, in a hot air balloon. I’ve wanted to do this as long as I can remember, but certainly ever since I read my favorite children’s book in the fifth grade, The Twenty-One Balloons
We booked it the night before, after 7pm, with Ciel d’Afrique. We were just trying to figure out something to do that would get us out of town for a few hours and see something besides markets, and I suggested it. To my delight, everyone was keen. So the next morning we rolled up to a little outpost, with a couple of staff and a guy holding a camel. While the balloon was getting itself ready, we each took a little lap around the “yard” on the camel, which was excellent practice for all the camel mounting and dismounting we would be doing over the next couple of days.
This camel was devilishly cute. Here he is:
The moment our eyes met.
This camel WORKED for these photos.
I used to get lash extensions in Dallas to look like this
Awwww he wants to go!
We were told to climb in, and then it all happened quite quickly. All of a sudden, before I had time to prepare my camera, we were dozens of feet in the air. I looked down on my camel friend and began to feel mist sticking to my hair.
Only it wasn’t mist. It was a cloud.
We were in the cloud for a couple of minutes and were kind of concerned that the whole ride would be like this. Surrounded by disorienting light gray nothingness. But then suddenly, rays of light. And then more rays of light, and then pointy black shapes in the distance. These were the Atlas Mountains.
The first twenty minutes or so were taken up by jokes, laughing, and cameras clicking. After that the chatter stopped and we got quiet. It was completely silence, and I remember thinking the only time I’ve experienced such silence – no birds chirping, no refrigerator humming – was in a cave. But we were drenched in sunlight. So I can safely say I’d never felt such a sunny, silent sensation before that moment.
When I was up there, I thought of something my friend Jonathan said once when his roommates lofted his dorm bed too close to the ceiling without his permission: “I feel like I’m up there with Jesus!”
Some perspective.
What the sky looks like as seen from the sky.
When we came back to earth, they had breakfast prepared for us in a tent, which we wolfed down, and then it was back to Marrakech.
The next morning we said goodbye to Marrakech for two days, and put ourselves in the hands of Morocco Expert Tours. It was more expensive than other tours we saw advertised with roughly the same itinerary, but those were with dozens of strangers on buses. We wanted a private tour.
Our Excursion Route
Our driver, Hamid, could not have been nicer. Poor guy, he had to listen to six Americans laugh and joke and play stupid car games for two days. We stopped in lots of gorgeous spots to take pictures, he pointed out interesting geological formations, and I asked questions about the lives of the people who live in the Moroccan countryside.
“What do they do for a living?” “Agriculture, mostly. My family lives out here and they are in the fossil business.” “The fossil business? Like scientists?” “No, they look for fossils to sell to tourists.”
“Are the people who live out here poor?” “No, they’re fine. I mean, they don’t have a lot of money but they have plenty to eat. Everyone raises goats. They have plenty of milk, cheese, and meat.”
Stuff like that. I found it all completely fascinating.
And this family
And these ladies
And these goats.
And these girls
And these girls
I had to come to terms with the fact that she is much cooler than I’ll ever be.
And this lady.
And this family
The Hollywood of Morocco. In this little village, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Babel, Lawrence of Arabia and many others have been filmed. Google informs me that many local people make their living from working as movie extras.
Me, and the shirt I take on every trip.
SUCH a solid group of people.
At sundown, we got to a clearing in the mountains, flat and sandy. Our camels were lined up, waiting for us. We each picked the one we liked, mounted up, and were led through the dunes and hills to our campsite for the night. On the way, we laughed a lot about our painful backsides, sang songs from Aladdin, and Marion said she felt like we should be carrying frankincense and myrrh.
Our transportation to the Berber camp. Our guide, Hamid, on the right. (Not sure I had to specify that, but it’s too funny to delete.)
I named my camel Francesco.
The campsite. Not what I expected. Thick oriental rugs overlapping, completely covering any trace of sand beneath. Pillows set up for leaning on. Tents for sleeping and eating. Inside the tents, little rollaway beds. No sleeping on the ground with this tour! We were given welcome tea, then dinner, and then we got to listen to the Berbers who work there play their drums. And then, we got little lessons on playing the drums. We tried to copy their hand movements and hit the same spots on the drums that they were hitting, and it reminded me of that old game Simon – remember that game? I did okay on the drums and the Berber said, in French, that I was good. I thanked him without telling him of my past life as a middle school drummer.
Our dinner tent in the Berber Camp. L-R. Me, Seema, Mike, Marion, Brendan, Matt
Decent sleep. The wind was howling outside which woke us all up, a lot. SOMEONE in the group (ahem) woke me up ON PURPOSE to ask if I could hear the wind, too. 🙂
Up at dawn, and all six of us hiked up the dunes as far as we could go. I’ve never been so out of breath in my life. Sand was blowing in our eyes, our ears, our mouths, and we covered our faces as best we could with the scarves that Morocco Expert Tours had gifted us.
Those specks? Flying sand.
Our camp for the night. No roads, no Wi-fi.
Sunrise in the Sahara
Then it was time for breakfast and to leave, again on the camels, and then in the SUV that would take us for the next 9 hours back through the mountains, villages, and streams, and back for one last night in our riad in Marrakech. On the way back, Hamid helped me negotiate a price for a box of fresh dates. I had bought a box of dates in Marrakech and had finished them. I paid the equivalent of 2 euros for about a pound and they were magnificent. Sweet as candy.
This rainbow!
Too good to be true.
The next morning it was back to Rome.
Thank goodness for these two excursions. I left Morocco feeling like I had really done something. If you go, get out of the cities and take your camera.
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