Morocco Tour Day 4: Return to the desert

Before leaving Agdez we drove up to the top of a hill on the edge of town to look at the view across the valley to the bleak stony lands beyond. Ismail said we had plenty of time today so after some driving following the valley, we stopped to go for a walk through the palm forest.

The forest was nowhere near as uniform as it looked from the outside. Under and between the palms there were some ground crops growing (like wheat) and fodder for animals. We also got to see the range of irrigation ditches that are used to water various parts of the valley when regulation permits. Apparently each family gets a time window of a few hours to divert water into their channels. Noting the infrequent rains, we got the impression that the Murray Darling basin managers and users could learn a few things about effective collective management of water resources.

Not wanting to enter the desert in mid afternoon, we enjoyed a long lunch break before heading to Mhamid for another camel adventure. This ride was longer, although the camels seemed more comfortable - Samuel went double with Eric this time. It was quite hot when we started and the desert was quite different to Merzouga. Smaller dunes with stony plains in between the dunes, more yellow sand instead of the vivid orange and small clumps of vegetation. The wind had sculpted the sand into all sorts of interesting patterns which we could observe from camelback.

Note these camels came with front mounted stubby holders - except we were in Morocco!

The camels were fine but the humans were exhausted

When we arrived at camp we discovered we were the only guests that night. After the usual welcome of mint tea there was time before sunset to explore a bit and take photos. Ismail was happy to be back in "his" desert where he grew up and while we stood on the highest dune near the camp and watched the sun go down we had a good chat about the desert and the berber lifestyle.

Back at camp we met the resident cat family (most desert camps have a few cats around), and then after all the nomads had broken their Ramadan fast, the three of us enjoyed a late dinner including the best soup of the trip (so far) and a huge beef tagine under the stars. After dinner we enjoyed some Berber drumming featuring Samuel as special visiting artist. It was a most memorable evening.

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