Erfoud and a night in the Sahara Dessert

Finally, in the safe hands of our tour guide. This is going to be a really long entry.

Full semicircle rainbow

Happy tourists in the van

Halfway through the Middle Atlas Mountains making our way to Erfoud.

Lunch:

We stopped halfway for lunch at this restaurant with beautiful landscaping.

Best Tagine and salad of the whole trip.

My mouth can still water from remembering the tender lamb tagine and the delicious sauce that came with it.

Continuing our journey, we stopped at another spot where we could see the Oasis lined with trees and it passes between dry land with a few Berber villages along the way. For more stories about the Chronicles of Marrakech and the climax of the story which took place here, please visit Flower Monster's blog.

Reached Erfoud and visited the fossil factory. We had a tour around this factory where they showed us fossilised jelly fish and some other weird animals which looked like king crab and snails. The stoned were carved into accessories, plates and even furniture.

Finally, we reached Hotel Tizimi, where we spent the night before the start of our dessert adventure. It was a really lovely hotel. Weird enough, from this point on, the tap water tasted salty. I guess their source of water is from distillation of sea water.

Everyone become really emo under the influence of this particular red light except for one who doesn't have emo in her dictionary. I think the other guests must be wondering what's so fascinating about the light.

Feeling depressed yet?

Dinner:

Hungry people who were busy cam-whoring while waiting for dinner to the extent that they've forgotten their hunger.

It was a set dinner where we had soup for starter, rice, chicken and veg for mains, and this dessert made of dates and pastry. Guess what one of our friend found in the dessert? A fly larvae!!! I guess all of us must have really strong stomachs, training from all the food poisoning risks back home. Nobody fell ill the next day.

There was a swimming pool in our hotel, but taking into account that it was winter, we decided to go star-gazing instead. One of the doorman even brought us up to the roof so that we could get a better view. I noticed that all of the roofs were flat, maybe people there really love to spend time on the rooftops gazing at stars.

Quiz: Somebody offered 50 camels (1 camel = 1,500 euros) to buy one of the girls. Who is it that is in such high demand in Morocco?
Clue: Offer increased to 100 camels by the time we got to Marrakech.

I wished I had learn something about stars prior to this trip.

Breakfast:

Buffet breakfast. The eggs were really small and sometimes I do wonder what sort of bird egg it was. Hmmm....

We went out to explore the nearby town that morning before we headed off to the desserts. The roads were so empty that we could walk in the middle of it. Kids, don't try this at home. One thing which I didn't like was the amount of dust swirling around as we walked. We only visited this souvenir shop and the shopkeeper wanted to keep M's and my scarfs and barter trade them with one of his carpets. He was really persistent about it as well. I had no way of getting it back as he hung it around his neck. In the end, we came up with the most bizarre excuses. M's excuse was that it was a gift from her boyfriend and mine was a gift from my husband. He quickly returned it after we said that. Hahaha...seriously daylight robbery to the highest level.

One thing good that came out of that visit to the shop was all of us could dress up like one of the locals!

Our 4 wheel drive through the dessert

This will be the cover of our band's photo album. Just need to add in the title and some descriptions.

Reached our restaurant and camel stop.

Hungry people waiting for lunch. I guess we're always hungry.

From Tagine, Berber omelette (which was just normal fried egg), salad, skewed meat to fruits.

My camel! I was so excited about it as it was my first time riding a camel. Haven't even rode any animals in my life.

Just before we head off.

The scariest part was the getting on and off the camel. Other than that, just hold on tight! Actually I managed to let go once I got used to the camel's movements.

It was just like a scene out of a movie. So happy that I'd the opportunity to ride a camel. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to the Berber tents where we spend the night in the cold Sahara dessert.

Finally, we reached our destination. This is where realisation hit me. I went out to search for the toilet and guess what the guide told me. 'The toilet is everywhere'. Oh my goodness.......first time in my life, I was told that I could do my business anywhere in the middle of the dessert, behind a tree, wait, there's not that many trees or bushes in the dessert.....maybe behind one of the camels but they didn't sound too happy. There wasn't any electricity in these tents, but as I went outside to search for a spot, suddenly, the moonlight looked so bright and I never knew I could see so many things so clearly with just the light source from the moon. It's not even full. It's unfair that it's so easy for the guys to settle their full bladders.

Nevermind, back to the non-distressing part of the story.

We were entertained by singing and drums from the Berber tribe before dinner.

They even let us have a go at the drums. We ended up playing 'We will Rock you' cause the beat is easy. Hehehe.

Dinner: Mint tea, bread and soup, tagine and fruits again. I guess bread and Tagine is the staple diet here. Our fluid consumption decreased tremendously from this meal onwards.

The tent where we spent the night. We were given 2 really thick blankets each but I still had to sleep with my ski jacket on as it was freeeezinggg.....

More entertainment around a bonfire. Singing and dancing through the night accompanied by drums.

That wasn't the end of our night adventure. We even attempted to race up one of the massive sand dune. The hardest thing that I've done since climbing Mt. Kinabalu. Even climbing the mountain wasn't as tiring as this. As you can see, we were only guided by the moonlight. No one managed to reach the peak. Not even one of the guides. I was dragged down by one of the guides on my bum which was really fun and extremely effective in getting sand into places where you never expect. For example, my pockets, my card holder. I still find a few grains of sand while pulling out my debit card these days.

Back to my tent to sleep. Plan number 1 for tomorrow: wake up before sunrise to answer nature's call. Plan 2: watch sunrise.

Sunrise:

I love this silhouette picture of me jumping. Mind you, it does look nice and the price that I had to paid was a sore back immediately after landing. Haih...getting old.

Watching the sun rise in the middle of a dessert is one of the most beautiful sights that I would recommend anyone to experience in their lifetime.

The 20 minutes experience is truly unforgettable. This photo is just to prove that my back is ok from the previous jump. Hahahah.

M and I who were the earliest in getting up and we managed to walk quite a distance away from our tents to watch the sunrise. The others decided to climb the sand dunes from the night before.

My morning yoga accompanied by Mr Camel here.

Breakfast: Mint tea, English tea, Black coffee, orange juice, bread and a variety of jams in little tagines.

The camel ride back

Our camels getting ready for their riders

We saw some lost and dehydrated person who went running as he saw water which turned out to be a mirage thus losing his will to live in the process. I hope he survives.

Back to our camel stop with proper and private toilets. How I miss civilisation.

My camel which I'm going to call Latte since one is already called little Mocha, another one white chocolate. Does he remind you of someone? He was complaining of hunger every 15 seconds all the way back. Haih...

Next up: On the way to Marrakech

P.s. update might be delayed till this weekend due to ALS course.