May 18-20, 2007.

We were sad to say goodbye to Marrakech but we were off to the Sahara!! How cool is that?

It would be a 2-day drive to get to the desert, and we were all looking forward to the change of scenery along the way. Morocco offers so much diversity: coastal towns, ancient cities, small villages, the Atlas mountains (low, mid and high), the Sahara, Berbers, Arabs, nomads, camels… oh, and turtles (more on that when we get to Fes).

The road to the desert from Marrakech is about 9 hours long; resting in Skoura and then later in Tinehir would break this drive up nicely. So here we go! You ready?

We met up with our driver Moustapha and sped out of town in his pimped up Mercedes with A/C blasting and some nice Moroccan music playing. An hour into the drive the A/C was turned off and the music changed from Moroccan to US hip hop. In order to get to Skoura we would have to pass the Lower Atlas, and in doing so you could feel the climate change with cool moisture in the air and occasional fog as we reached the higher elevations.
The drive was windy and everything you’ve heard of about the dangers of driving in Morocco are true. We witnessed the aftermath of this horrible accident. I am not sure when it occurred, maybe the day before, maybe a couple of hours before but it was a sobering site to see.

We all had to have our eyes peeled for our turnoff, as our B&B was located on a dirt road 2 kilometres before the actual town of Skoura, and with our driver getting a little anxious in getting back to Marrakech after being held up with more traffic than expected we could not afford to miss it. Once we witnessed the signpost and took the turnoff I think we all wished that we had in fact missed it and found a nice comfy hotel in the center of town with A/C!

The weighed down Mercedes consisting of 4 grown adults (plus Shanti) and bags hit every bump and pothole the dirt track gave us. Moustapha was in good spirits about it all considering what he was putting his car through and after about 20 minutes of nerves, and wondering where the hell was this going to take us, we arrived at our B&B with a collective sigh of relief. Would you believe it was only 4 kilometres off the main road?

Les Jardins de Skoura turned out to be an absolute delight, with beautiful gardens, well-appointed rooms and large roof decks for viewing the sunset and stars. It was hard to believe that this wonderful oasis existed literally in the middle of nowhere. It is the perfect getaway for those who want some peace and quiet, and good food. The dinner was fantastic, another superb tajine, and we ended our night watching the stars. It is too bad we could only stay one night, and in retrospect the drive in was totally worth it.

Having some mint tea at Les Jardins de Skoura.

The next day we met Ider, the man who would take us to Tinehir where we would stay the night. But we (especially Shanti!) fell in love with him and his benign and docile nature. Plus, his price for the drive (which you negotiate before each journey), was surprisingly fair. We asked him to stay with us and drive us to the desert the next day, and he ended up taking us all the way to Fes. On our way to Tinehir, we visited ‘Mains des Singes’- ‘monkey hands’, where the rock formations actually looked like the palms of monkeys’ (or humans’) hands! Very cool. We continued on to the Dades Gorge, which was quite beautiful as well, but even more spectacular was the hairpin curved road we had to take to get there!

Kalan and the Monkey Hands, hairpin curves, and Ider with Nana Lulu.

Our time in Tinehir was brief, we arrived in the evening at our hotel, lounged by the pool, slept well and continued on the next day. We visited Todra Gorge, which was admittedly better than Dades Gorge. Sheer vertical cliffs shooting up from a small river gorge were quite awesome to see. Because it was a Sunday, there were hordes of teenagers at the Gorge with their picnic lunches and drums. We didn’t feel scared at all, because since Muslims don’t drink alcohol, there was no alcohol-related aggression to be had.

Just as we were approaching the desert after a full day of driving, we hit a severe sandstorm. As we approached it, it looked like we were going into some fog or rain. Even though our windows were all closed, sand got in everywhere. We couldn’t see one foot in front of the car- thank goodness Ider was driving! It subsided fairly quickly, and soon enough we arrived on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Erg Chebbi. And what a site that was! Our hotel was literally at the foot of the dunes, thanks to Kalan’s master hotel planning.