Excursion Day 2/3: Todra Gorges and SAHARA!!!

Well, our 3 day, 2 night desert excursion turned into a 4 day, 3 night excursion when I got food poisoning (aka. Lawrence of Arabia's Revenge) at the first hotel we stayed at. I think I used up all my luck in China, because I was the only one out of 10 people to get sick from what we were all served family style. While I imagine that food poisoning is never any fun, it is definitely not fun in Morocco, in an un-air conditioned bus on the way to the desert, driving on twisty, turny roads. I tried to rally to continue with our group to the dunes but we ended up staying the night at the restaurant/hotel we stopped at for lunch in the Todra Gorge. It was run by a nice Berber man who spoke 5 languages and made me "an old Berber cure" (Berber tea with cumin) to calm my stomach. I'm not convinced it did anything, but I got better so that is all that matters!


Thus, we ended up meeting up with the next group that came through on Saturday. While we liked our first group a lot (fun mix of people), I really liked the driver of the second group. Since it was a big group, Court and I got to ride in the front seat where there was much more ambiance--we listened to a mix of Berber music, Arab Rap, Bob Marley, and '90s power ballads. We also had front row to all the road shenanigans...

Poor sheep

Kasbah

Palmerie with kasbah

Truck that almost didn't make it through al-baab

We went through a lot of water on our hot ride to Merzouga, where we needed to pick up our camels. Apparently it had been 52 degrees CELSIUS the day before--even if I knew how to convert to fahrenheit, I would not want to know what that is! However, the ride was totally worth it because the Sahara is amazing. We caught the first sight of the red dunes to "The Power of Love" by Celine Dion and I really could not have asked for anything more (Lisa--you would have loved it)! For me, the coolest thing about the Sahara is how it just starts. All of a sudden there are just these beautiful red dunes!

Love at first sight--dunes in the far back

Even closer

Hotel signs

The "road" we kinda followed

Riding motorbikes

Dunes!