Christina of Chongrabia

So whilst in Morocco, we did a camping excursion out in the Sahara. We drove about 7 hours outside of Marrakech, through the mid-Atlas mountains. We stopped to visit a kasbah at Ait Ben Haddou, the oldest and best preserved one in Morocco where they filmed parts of Lawrence of Arabia and Jesus of Nazareth, and rode a donkey across a river to get there. Then, we lunched on chicken tajine and Moroccan salad in Ourazazate. Each region in Morocco has its own speciality and that is basically what we ate the whole time near Marrakech. Breakfast everywhere consisted of croissant and baguette with butter and marmalade and sweeetened mint tea and coffee. Great the first day, a little repetitive by the fifth.

The scenery is absolutely beautiful. You'd think you'd get bored of 7 hours of the mountains and desert but no. The driver played French, Arabaic, and Berber folk music and we listened to radio too (JT, Kelly Clarkson). The drive through the desert was lined with date and fig trees, little roadside stands, and small villages. We actually thought that the date trees were palm trees and couldn't figure out what the women did with the leaves. They carried bundles of them on a sack or on a cart so we knew they used it for something but we just couldn't imagine what. I felt like such a cityslicker. They obviously used them to make fences but the only other thing I could think of was using it for fires. We asked our driver, who spoke French and a little English, and it turns out that they use it for hay for the donkeys. Duh. But in my defense, they do also use it for fuel.

Once in Zagora, we rode camels, which are surprisingly not stinky, into the desert to the campsite. However, we did not go camping in the "good" desert as the guy at the tour office told us. By this he meant the part of the Sahara with the big-ass sand dunes but we didn't care. We got to Zagora after sunset, which we weren't supposed to do, but the upside was that we trekked under the moon and star light. It was amazing to ride in the dark and to see the moon and stars so clearly because there was such little light pollution. The only other time that happened was when I drove through Mexico and you really do want lights when you're driving. Since we couldn't play "I Spy", we made up games to occupy ourselves during the 2 hour ride while two Berber nomads guided us and the camels into the desert.

Once at the campsite, we were surprised and relieved to discover how comfortable it was. They had set up sleeping tents and a lounge for us and there were also toilets. We had dinner and hung out with the Berber nomads, who have a good sense of humor. When we asked what was for dinner since not everyone likes to eat lamb, they replied "Camel" and we were all a little uneasy. When we asked, "Are we eating one of the camels we rode?" they laughed and said we're eating chicken tajine. Ha ha ha. Also, one of the guys tried to sell us girls for camels. That's when we found out that 1 camel=10,000 dirham=1,000 Euro. According to one of the merchants in a souvenir shop, I am worth 10,000 camels so you better start saving up Mark. After dinner, we listened to music since someone had the foresight to bring their Ipod speakers and played Uno for hours with the Berber nomads. We felt very ignorant. We were all prepared to teach them how to play Uno but they already knew how to play. Not only that, they also spoke Arabic, Berber, French, and English. And, oh yeah, they could navigate using the stars.

We tried to take pictures of the moon because it was so exciting to see it illuminate the sky but there wasn't enough ambient light to do so. We went to bed in our comfy tents (mattresses, blankets, etc.) and woke up at 6:30 to take pictures of the sunrise. The sand in the Sahara is the softest ever but I forgot to put some in a bottle to take back with me. We rode back through the desert on the camels after breakfast. Well, the girls rode and the guys walked back. Riding a camel is not the most comfortable thing in the world and, although they don't smell, they shit a lot. Apparently, you also only ride male camels. We saw all the scenery we missed the night before (people's houses, smaller mountains) and solved riddles and consulting case questions. Sorry, we are in business school. Our favorite Berber nomad, Mohammed, asked us a couple riddles and we had particular trouble solving one (What speaks all languages and stands on its head?). He asked us if we wanted to give up but we refused to because, you know, we're MBAs and smart enough to figure it out...