The Sahara!

I spent one of my long weekends traveling to the Sahara. It was one of the most amazing experiences. Merzouga is about an eight hour trip from Ifrane by taxi. By bus it is about a 12-hour trip; in most cases, it is much longer. A Grande Taxi holds six passengers. As a group, we decided to take a taxi. I believe this was the best way because we were able to stop numerous times throughout the journey to Merzouga.

 We made many stops for picture opportunities on the way to and from the desert. It is amazing how many different environments exist throughout Morocco.
We finally arrived in the desert. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it. Everywhere you look, mountains of sand are on the horizon. We rode camels to the campsite, we walked around taking pictures, sand-boarded, and emptied our shoes multiple times before dinner.

Due to the fact that we traveled in early December, it was a perfect temperature during mid-day, but as the sun began its descent, our coats came out. Our campsite consisted of many fancy tents and plenty of blankets. 

When you spend the night in the desert, you need to remember to bring jackets and shoes that you will not mind if they have sand in them until the end of time. I still find sand in my shoes. However, sandy shoes were completely worth the excitement and beauty of the desert. 

As the sun set, our camp-host ushered us to the top of a sand dune to take pictures. Pictures will never capture the full beauty of this sunset. 

After we took our pictures and ate a wonderful Tajine, we sat around a fire. At first we just talked quietly. Then they brought out many musical instruments and sang Berber songs around the fire. It was lively and vastly entertaining. They taught us how to play the instruments, at which I failed but I still had fun. Once some of my friends learned how to play the instruments, we sang English songs that we could all remember the words--this was much harder than one would think.

The next morning, I woke the girls up an hour before sunrise because I had a feeling that many of them had never seen stars in the wilderness--without light pollution. We brought our blankets to the top of a dune and huddled as the sun rose and the stars disappeared. That is one of my favorite moments of the day. 

After the sun was fully in the sky, we rode the camels away from the desert and back to the main building. We enjoyed an amazing breakfast and then laid on chairs in the sun--defrosting our frozen toes and soaking up the beautiful desert rays. 

The time we all rued had arrived--it was time to leave Merzouga. We began our eight-hour trip back to Ifrane but stopped at a few beautiful locations on the way. One of the locations was a hot spring, sadly I do not know the exact location nor the history behind the spring. 

Take Away Tips:

~ It is better to travel in a group of six because you can take a Grande Taxi for a reasonable price

~Bring jackets because it gets cold at night

~Wear shoes you don't mind getting sandy

~Charge your phone or the device that you plan to take pictures with