What an amazing weekend! The desert trip was incredible, and I had such a wonderful time with wonderful people. I can't even begin to describe the beauty of the desert, the endless dunes that lay ahead of us, the skyful of stars that we slept under, the breath-taking feeling of sitting atop Erg Chebbi and watching the sun rise, and the impeccable silence of the desert. A picture is worth 1000 words, and this weekend I took 365 photos! I just want to capture it all down forever! I'll try to summarize most of our adventures here.
Friday
Alex, Kevin, and Mark came to pick up Jitske and I around 11:30pm, and we head off to their apartment. Our other plan with the car rental? Failed. But thank goodness! Everything worked out for the best. Instead of driving ourselves, Kevin's friend's brother had a grand taxi and he said he would drive us there and back for a pretty reasonable price. We agreed to leave at 1am. So, at 1am we pile into the grand taxi - Jitske in front, then Mark, Alex, me, and Kevin in the back. We slept on and off most of the way, and managed to take just one break at 5:30am to have some tea and use the bathroom.
Saturday
Our driver also drove super super quickly, so by around 9:30-10am, we were in Rissani! We begin looking out for signs to Auberge du Sud, and soon found it. The sign told us to take a left turn. This is what we saw when we looked to the left:
Just nothingness! But we turned onto it anyway, and just decided to drive in that general direction. The road was very sandy and rocky, and before long, we were stuck. Stuck in the sand. We got out and all helped push the car (more like Mark and Kevin pushed the car....). We managed to get it out a little bit, but it was pretty stuck.
Eventually, a van drove past and we asked him for some help. We even tried lifting the tire out of the sand! But it also didn't work. Finally, we were able to get through to the hotel on the phone, and they sent a jeep out, and he pulled us out of the sand with his jeep! We were stuck for about an hour and a half, but we finally made it to the auberge!
We sat down to lunch, a great view, and a nice and refreshing swimming pool. It was very pretty! Unfortunately, none of us brought our swimsuits, so undies and bras had to suffice. We figured, we'd only be in a swimming pool by the Sahara once in our lifetime!
We then got to stay in a temporary room that the hotel gave us, so we took that time to get some rest. Then at 7pm, we headed out on our camel trek! We camel-ed for two hours into the Sahara, and we stopped on the way to admire the sunset. Then it was onwards towards Erg Chebbi. Here are some photos!
In the evening, we had dinner at our camp-site, and then watched a short musical performance that they gave us. There were other campsites there as well, but just the 5 of us at this one. After the performance, it was around 11:30pm, and the girls headed to bed while Mark and Kevin climbed half-way up the dune. We all slept outside on mattresses, and looked up to a sky full of stars. It was breath-taking! The stars felt so close, and there were so, so, so many. We could see constellations, and part of the milky way! Sadly, we couldn't take only photos in the dark. But it was truly beautiful.
The next morning, we woke up at 5:45am and climbed up the dunes to the top of Erg Chebbi to see the sunrise. It was quite the climb! The hill was steep, and the sand kept slipping out from under my feet. But the view was worth it.
After that we had breakfast, and then camel-ed for 2 hours back to the auberge. Then began the roadtrip home. Because of traffic, a 1.5 hour detour...., and dinner in Meknes, we didn't make it back to Rabat until about 10:45pm. But it was an amazing weekend, and I'm so thankful I had this opportunity!
Today it is back to work! Only 4 more days until I go home! I will most definitely miss this place, and I've had some really wonderful funtimes these past few weeks. Sadly, facebook isn't letting me upload photos right now for some reason, but once it does, I will definitely put up the rest!
Will keep you all posted on this last week in M-CO!
Friday
Alex, Kevin, and Mark came to pick up Jitske and I around 11:30pm, and we head off to their apartment. Our other plan with the car rental? Failed. But thank goodness! Everything worked out for the best. Instead of driving ourselves, Kevin's friend's brother had a grand taxi and he said he would drive us there and back for a pretty reasonable price. We agreed to leave at 1am. So, at 1am we pile into the grand taxi - Jitske in front, then Mark, Alex, me, and Kevin in the back. We slept on and off most of the way, and managed to take just one break at 5:30am to have some tea and use the bathroom.
Saturday
Our driver also drove super super quickly, so by around 9:30-10am, we were in Rissani! We begin looking out for signs to Auberge du Sud, and soon found it. The sign told us to take a left turn. This is what we saw when we looked to the left:
 |
| "Left" |
Just nothingness! But we turned onto it anyway, and just decided to drive in that general direction. The road was very sandy and rocky, and before long, we were stuck. Stuck in the sand. We got out and all helped push the car (more like Mark and Kevin pushed the car....). We managed to get it out a little bit, but it was pretty stuck.
 |
| Stuck in the middle of nowhere :( |
Eventually, a van drove past and we asked him for some help. We even tried lifting the tire out of the sand! But it also didn't work. Finally, we were able to get through to the hotel on the phone, and they sent a jeep out, and he pulled us out of the sand with his jeep! We were stuck for about an hour and a half, but we finally made it to the auberge!
We sat down to lunch, a great view, and a nice and refreshing swimming pool. It was very pretty! Unfortunately, none of us brought our swimsuits, so undies and bras had to suffice. We figured, we'd only be in a swimming pool by the Sahara once in our lifetime!
We then got to stay in a temporary room that the hotel gave us, so we took that time to get some rest. Then at 7pm, we headed out on our camel trek! We camel-ed for two hours into the Sahara, and we stopped on the way to admire the sunset. Then it was onwards towards Erg Chebbi. Here are some photos!
In the evening, we had dinner at our camp-site, and then watched a short musical performance that they gave us. There were other campsites there as well, but just the 5 of us at this one. After the performance, it was around 11:30pm, and the girls headed to bed while Mark and Kevin climbed half-way up the dune. We all slept outside on mattresses, and looked up to a sky full of stars. It was breath-taking! The stars felt so close, and there were so, so, so many. We could see constellations, and part of the milky way! Sadly, we couldn't take only photos in the dark. But it was truly beautiful.
The next morning, we woke up at 5:45am and climbed up the dunes to the top of Erg Chebbi to see the sunrise. It was quite the climb! The hill was steep, and the sand kept slipping out from under my feet. But the view was worth it.
 |
| Sunrise on Erg Chebbi |
After that we had breakfast, and then camel-ed for 2 hours back to the auberge. Then began the roadtrip home. Because of traffic, a 1.5 hour detour...., and dinner in Meknes, we didn't make it back to Rabat until about 10:45pm. But it was an amazing weekend, and I'm so thankful I had this opportunity!
Today it is back to work! Only 4 more days until I go home! I will most definitely miss this place, and I've had some really wonderful funtimes these past few weeks. Sadly, facebook isn't letting me upload photos right now for some reason, but once it does, I will definitely put up the rest!
Will keep you all posted on this last week in M-CO!
