We quickly settled into the routine of life in a Berber camp.  It was a simple but noble existence, moving smoothly from sand-boarding to playing dress-up to eating delicious tagines by candlelight to singing round the table and asking each other riddles until we fell asleep.  Sandboarding (Keep in mind that I’ve never snowboarded in […]

At long last — the time had come.  At the stroke of 6:30pm we left our room in search of Said — we were off to the desert!  Almost.  First, we had to have the obligatory round of tea — or, in our case, mint leaves in boiling water — which was served in a […]

As we continued on our journey, the pretty green valleys gradually disappeared.  The world outside the car became more and more desert-like.  First there were camels . . . then sand dunes amassed along the edge of the highway and kept at bay by a series of flimsy-looking wooden barriers . . . and wells dug by […]

The Todra Valley leads to the Todra Gorge, the tallest and narrowest gorge in Morocco.  Given the shade and the water, it’s a refreshingly cool spot in an otherwise hot, dry region.  There were various platforms on the river where families sat napping and picnicking — Said told us that normally there would be more people, but […]

The Valley of Roses resembles very other valley we passed through:  A verdant flood plain spreading between dry, rocky hills.  The name comes from the considerable cultivation of roses in the valley.  Most of the bushes were, in fact, rose bushes — which would be quite a sight when in bloom.  Each year in May […]

There was a time when I traveled in crowded chicken buses, slept (or attempted to sleep) in sweltering, mold-covered youth hostels, and ate nothing but a banana and a Twix all day long (the banana was breakfast, the Twix was lunch and dinner).  It was a mode of travel that allowed me to get by on practically nothing (which […]

Ouarzazate is known as the “Hollywood of Morocco” — it’s got a couple of major studios located here, where movies that need a desert/mid-east setting can be made.  For example, the films Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and Alexander were all filmed here. Moroccan movie studios American movie studios American studios from a distance Lawrence of Arabia […]

Having left the Atlas mountains behind us, the land flattened out and once again became arid and barren.  As we drew near to the city of Ourzazate, our driver suddenly abandoned the perfectly good paved road and struck out into the middle of nowhere over a pair of tracks in the rocky ground.  Said explained that […]

From the very earliest planning stages of this trip, I had a very clear vision of Amanda and me riding through the Sahara Desert on camelback — preferably dressed like Lawrence of Arabia — and camping under the stars in a Berber camp.  Despite all sorts of trepidation and anxiety from Amanda (who generally prefers to […]

So many stories!  So many pictures!  I haven’t the time to do them justice nor the connection to get them all uploaded (the power keeps cutting on and off), so suffice it to say that I’m sitting in a tiny auberge on the edge of the Sahara desert waiting for the camels that will take us […]