Who has not dreamed of sleeping in the desert watching the stars? Well, I had done it many times. Since we started planning the trip to Morocco, do not doubt what you wanted to do. We knew that in our 5-day journey through Marrakech it would be difficult to fully enter the desert, but surely there would be some way to do it.
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| credits : Pixabay |
In the lodges, they offer you countless excursions around Marrakech and some even to the desert.
We do not doubt it, we asked for information via email to what was going to be our accommodation and sent us all the possible excursions.
Our choice was the two-day trip to the desert of Zagora city, which is what they call "the door" to the desert.
Do not expect large dunes, only small sand mountains, but with 2 days of hiking, time does not give you more.
The price of the excursion was € 50 each, which included accommodation in the desert Khaima, dinner and breakfast, 2 camel trips, and a guided visit to Ksar Ait Ben Hadou. Here you can get an idea of the prices and excursions from Marrakech.
Our adventure in the Zagora Desert
We woke up eager after a delicious breakfast on the terrace of the riad. We waited on the patio sofas until the boy who would take us on the trip came.
The man arrived, a little later than expected. He took us out of the labyrinthine streets that form the center of Marrakech. In the streets where you could already drive with vehicles (I mean cars because motorcycle traffic is also in the center of the city), there was a minivan, where the man left us and we made a tour picking up people to fill it.
The driver put gasoline and the adventure began
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| credit : Pixabay |
We made a stop to go to the bathroom and stretch our legs before reaching the first town we were going to visit. We travelled 185km of impressive curves and stretches of road in "bad" condition (they were under construction for many points along the way).
The driver stopped at Ksar of Ait Ben Hadu. It is a "fortified city" or ksar, a World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO in 1987 and is famous because there have been several films and famous series there. A guide came for us, a very nice guy who spoke very good Spanish. He made a guided tour of the entire ksar. The truth that we loved, although we did not have too much time to take pictures or buy any souvenirs.
During the visit we met a couple of Spaniards from Toledo, we joined them for the rest of the trip. That made us have a great time, we laughed a lot with them.
Once we finished the visit they took us to a restaurant to eat together. It was the typical restaurant they brought to all groups. It cost € 10 per person, obviously the price for tourists but it was very good.
We climbed back to the minivan and in just 30 minutes we stopped again.
Ouarzazate, in this city, is the most important film studios in Morocco, called Atlas Studios.
They left us half an hour to visit (if we wanted) the cinema museum. we entered, we did not have a lot of time to see it with tranquillity, we did some photos and went outside. The truth is dispensable if we had more time to see it well because maybe we would recommend it, but with half an hour you do not have anything. Admission costs 30 dirhams.
We arrived at a point where they left us, the driver said goodbye to us until the next day. Surrounded by camels, they told us to get on. Almost 1 hour of camel ride to the camp, where we would sleep.
Just 10 minutes passed and I wanted to go down, I do not know if my camel had more hump than the rest but I was uncomfortable, a pain down there ... I looked at my friend and she was so happy, and the rest was the same, I did not understand why I was suffering so much. I wanted to cry and they came in and everything.
Finally, we went down ... I walked down with my legs open, I could not sit for the rest of the day, because I had a raw wound, there ... yes, inside the back.
I already understood why I was suffering so much ...
Obviously, when I came back, that there was also a camel ride, I did not get on. I understood it as a sign, we were collaborating with the animal abuse, apparently, they do not hurt them, they do not suffer, but to force a hair to be all day from top to bottom with people on top ... well, it is not right.
* If you do not want to do the camel ride there is the option to drive there. The couple we met did it that way, yes, this option is more expensive.
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| cedits : Pixabay |
At last, we reached the camp, the desert gave us a beautiful sunset, I forgot for a moment the pain I was suffering. We sat on carpets with cushions and were greeted with tea. Dinner would be ready soon. We slept in a shared Khaima with an Asian father and son. 5 mattresses lying on the floor was the bed, without light and with unbearable heat. The night promised.
* You can hire the option of Khaima for two, obviously for a higher price.
After reviewing our cabin, we went to the Khaima where dinner was served. We get together with the guys from Spain. All were laughter when they began to serve the food, the hygiene was conspicuous by its absence, although everything was very good, at least it seemed to me.
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| credit : Pixabay |
We ended the night all lying on the central carpet listening to the show of drums that we had prepared. Already in the "Bed", we tried to sleep ... it was really horrible, an unbearable heat, little we rested the truth. They woke us up at dawn and prepared our breakfast. Well ... "breakfast", the bread of the previous night, tea and coffee, very shabby the truth.
Before leaving, photo session of course. The sun was rising and we had to take advantage of immortalizing that moment.
We washed our teeth as best we could, with our bottled water next to the "w.c" cabin and we prepared to leave. We were really sad, we enjoyed it a lot and it is a very nice experience.
It was time to say goodbye... everyone got on the camel and left us out of the "desert" where the cars could travel.
Our car was waiting for us. We climbed and started the way back.
This time we just made a stop, to eat. In a very shabby place, but we managed. It was the "official" stop of the journey, all the groups stopped there.
We arrived in Marrakech. Honestly, we liked the tour trip, we laughed a lot and made friends. If it is true that you see the minimum of the desert, some small dunes and that's it. But if you have more time, do not hesitate to make some more days and enjoy the desert for real.
