John and I have had a wonderful week touring Morocco! We spent the first two nights in Marrakech, then we spent the next two nights at a wonderful little hotel in the mountains called Domaine de la Roseraie. It was so peaceful and the grounds were beautiful – lots of rose gardens, a nice walking trail, good food, and a great spa where I had a hammam treatment, a very Moroccan water bath of sorts.
Our drive out of the high Atlas Mountains was rainy and foggy but still spectacular. We ended at the Berbere Palace in Ouarzazate – they call Ouarzazate the Hollywood of Morocco because so many movies have been filmed there (as well as some “Game of Thrones” episodes). It’s sort of the gateway to the desert. We saw some of the historical sites there, namely Ait Ben Hammoud, an old Kasbah, where we walked up to the very windy top.
The next day we started our day-long drive to the Western Sahara, close to the Algiers border. It took all day, with a few stops along the way. In one small Berber village, we stopped at a carpet shop where I bought a Berber wedding blanket, something I had on my shopping list.
We finally arrived at Merzouga, where we transferred to a 4×4 truck to go out in the dunes. We stayed at a truly luxurious tent camp (electricity and indoor plumbing!) – it was so peaceful. We had one full day there (two nights) – we started the day with a camel ride to see the sunrise, and ended the day with another ride out to see the sunset – both beautiful. During the day, we had the entire camp all to ourselves, as the large group of Aussies left in the morning, and the new folks didn’t arrive until evening. It was wonderfully quiet and peaceful, and we read and played gin rummy in the shade. The weather was perfect with a nice cool breeze most of the time.
We made the 10-hour drive from the desert back to Casablanca yesterday – John flies out today and I will leave early tomorrow morning – back to the real world. I’m anxious to see Flavia – we’ve been getting emails from the pet service this week, so I know she is OK but will be happy to see us!
I’m having tech diffies with my photos, so I’ll update soon! In the meantime, here’s a link to all my photos.