Day 22: Saharan Sunrise

We had trouble sleeping because of the cold night, sparse accommodations (of course, we were in a Berber tent in the middle of the desert)! But we eventually woke up at 6am for a great treat – sunrise over the desert.

We got out of the tent and walked along the sand dunes. Mench and I were feeling very happy, as this was exactly what we had in mind when we envisioned our Saharan trip. We enjoyed walking along the dunes for as long as we can, taking pictures to record the highlight of our Moroccan trip. We watched the sun rise over the desert and bathed the countryside with warmth. This was the culmination of over three weeks of traveling over Europe and North Africa, the ultimate adventure of the trip we entitled “Manila to Morocco.” Finally, we felt ready to come home.

We eventually came back to our tent for a spartan breakfast of jam and bread – then it was back to the camels for our ride back to Zagora.

Riding a camel sounds like a very exciting, even romantic thing. In truth, it’s a very bumpy ride, and really hurts down there! For a short camel trek of one hour over sunset and another hour over sunrise the day after, we’ve got several body aches that would last us a lot longer than that. Our respect for the Berber way of life increased after a small taste of what their lives were like.

Our driver eventually showed up and after a short break in Zagora, we proceeded to drive back through the same picturesque landscape back to Marrakesh. We stopped for lunch at Ouarzazate, a town 4 hours from Marrakesh which was being used by film companies worldwide for its desert sets. There was yet another kasbah a museum we could check out, but we were already tired at this point – not just from the overnight journey, but we were feeling all kasbah’d out and ready to go home. So we ate our lunch and just stayed at the restaurant, waiting to go back and finally go home.

We finally got back to Marrakesh at around 6pm. We said goodbye to our newfound friends and checked out the scene at Djemaa el Fna during dusk – always a great spectacle.

We had a quick dinner and retired early for the night, to prepare for our final day around Marrakesh tomorrow – and finally, back home!

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