Sahara Desert Camel Trip, Sandboarding, & City of Fes

The drive to the Sahara through Morocco is quite the scenic route and much longer than expected.  The landscape is almost as if one had combined the hilliness of Prescott; the red rock of Sedona, some Cactus and other desert-like plants, and some French-looking vineyards spread throughout.  Basically beautiful rolling hills and wide landscapes with, thankfully, vista points to stop at take pictures every few miles.   We passed Atlas Mountain, 4000 meters high with snow high on the peak tops, and passed through many little villages, scattered throughout the hillsides, definitely interesting to look upon.   After going through a winding valley with a river below, and homes built right out of cliffs and hills, we came to our lodging for the night.  

The hotel had an excellent view, being perched up high and along a cliff, and you could see the entire village below to the left (from the main balcony), with a nice waterfall to the right.    The detail and ornamentation in the hotel was beautiful; with metal statues, pottery, rugs everywhere, unique wall hangings and  even a miniature ship.  It was as if the owners of the establishment were collectors of antiquities and their hotel was the home of their treasured purchases.   Sleeping well, we were soon off in the morning to complete our drive to the Sahara, and begin our Camel Trek.

Nova and our guide, showing us his local village and former glory-palace

Set used in GLADIATOR, the movie

Hotel Balcony

View from the other side of the balcony at the hotel

Vegetable Tajine, an almost daily food order for us, and major local dish

Arriving at the edge of the Sahara, we left the majority of our luggage behind and packed only the necessities into our two backpacks.   Making a quick walk into the desert to use, as the driver said, the “bathroom natural”, we were ready to meet our camels!  Nova couldn’t stop giggling, smiling, and making noises at the camels as we approached and anytime we were stopped around them.  The 🐪 Camel Herders were impatient to leave, yet Nova had need of a diaper change.   With nowhere to change it besides the sand, we strode over to a camel and proceeded to utilize the saddle and actually changed her diaper on top of the camels back.   A couple of ladies, backpacking from the States and coming along on our expedition, found it to be hilarious and got the picture.  The next challenge was how to carry Nova, while mounting and riding the camel, especially since we were supposed to be holding onto a metal bar with our hands to prevent from falling off.  The herders were apparently unconcerned about the baby, yet I was unsure if they had ever had an almost-one-year-old on the trip before.  I decided to put Nova in the baby carrier backpack, and using that was almost like an extra hand, making it so I could manage with one hand for stability on the bar and the other to maneuver Nova around as she alternated between sitting, standing, and wriggling this way or that.  It was a lifesaver.  Keeping Nova occupied the whole way was another challenge; yet we saw things like a wild dog, cool tracks in the desert, massive dunes that appeared never-ending, other camels, including the one behind us who took quite the liking to Nova (every time I twisted around, the camel came up to say hi and went to sniff Nova), and expansive vistas, so it worked out and she was happy the whole time!!  

Nova seeing some Camels!  Wohooo!

Diaper change on Camel Seat

Arriving at camp for the night as the sun was setting and deep shadows were reaching out of the side of the dunes, I quickly grabbed a sandboard, which was basically a snowboard with broken bindings, and hiked up the biggest and steepest dune near camp while the sunlight from the sunset still illuminated the expansive terrain.   As the dune continued higher, the steepness increased and it seemed that every step I took, I was sliding back another half of a step.  Step, slide.  Step, slide.  I started to use the Sandboard as my aid, taking both hands and jamming it’s tip down into the sand in front of me, leveraging much of my weight onto it, like a walking stick.  After a couple of steps, I would pull the board out of the sand behind me, swing it back in front and stick it into the sand yet again, to repeat the process.  The guides below started yelling at me, I’m assuming because they didn’t think I would go so high before “trying it”, or to the steepest part, or because they knew I had never done it before, or I told them that I was going to try to use it like a snowboard (which they said was not going to work because the sand was too soft right now and its dangerous), or whatever.  I had a good feeling about what I was doing and so I ignored them and continued to to climb higher and higher, and all the while they continued to shout up after me.  Even with my “board-walking-stick” aid, it was taking quite some time but I continued up and up as the sun set over the horizon.   Eventually I reached the top and was able to sit one leg one side of the dune, and the other on the other side, with a near 360-degree panoramic forever.

I caught my breath, snagged a few photos, and began to consider my plan of attack.  Being that the sand was obviously going to be much different to ride down than snowboarding on snow; and that I didn’t have all day to learn, nor the potential luxury of starting small, and because the guide said he didn’t even know how to board down the dunes in these current conditions (the only way, he said, is to sit on the board like a sled), I knew that I had to be smart about it.  Since the guide had mentioned that the sand was soft and sliding, I took that as a cue to start off riding as though I was in powder-type-snow, which more of a leaning process, with the weight on the back of the board, rather than a cutting type of strategy.   Unfortunately, as I strapped in, I realized that a couple of things were against me .   One, the top binding on the left foot (regular riding) was completely broken, so I wouldn’t be able to keep my left heel down if I were to try to dig the front, toe-side down as leverage to help swing the back side around, or if I was going to jump-cut.  And Two, without boots, the bindings cut pretty hard into my calf, etc.  In any case, I stood up and began to make my way down the dune.   I carved to the left first, front side forward, and found it tough to swing the back leg around to toe-side, with the binding on my left foot not strapped in, the sand kind of sucking the board down, I believed the only way would be jump cutting, which wasn’t possible with the broken binding.  Instead, I brought the back leg forward, around to goofy (right foot forward) to change the angle of direction, making it a complete zig-zag process.   Continuing this strategy back and forth I made my way successfully down the dune.  At about 40% of the dune to go, I thought it could be fun to try the sled method and so I unstrapped, sat down, and, like a bullet, shot towards camp.  Sand was spraying everywhere, as I used my feet as brakes to prevent myself from flying into camp, and giving a couple of people time to stand up and move out of the way before I ran them over!  I made it!   I had sand EVERYWHERE so it was definitely time for a shower (which they actually had setup at camp)!!   After taking my shorts off, I turned them upside down outside our tent and sand poured out of the half-full pockets.  Sandboarding was a success!!

Surprisingly dinner was great, considering our location.  We had even cold drinks, fresh veggies, and a large tent-structure, lined with expensive Moroccan rugs along the entire floor.  The evening stars were gorgeous and almost immediately after leaving the dinner tent, I took Nova out into the dark and up the dune a little ways to see what we could see.  Mom soon joined us and we all turned around to see the lit up campsite and stars in every direction.   After Nova went to bed, Candace and I found ourselves back outside, laying on a expansive and massive Moroccan rug, just gazing up again at the Summer Triangle, Little Dipper, Milky Way, and whatever else we could see.

View of The Camp from just a bit up the dune

Morning brought breakfast, and another Camel Trip.   A sleepy Nova soon found herself onboard once again to enjoy the camel ride, and then and asleep, aboard the camel, shortly thereafter.   We were making our way to Fes.   So we found ourselves in a vehicle for most of the afternoon, due to the distance, and made our way to the city by late-afternoon.   

Fes is a cultural capital of Morocco.  Used to be the actual capital of Morocco until it’s leadership changed many years ago in history and the city fell out of power.  It has quite a large and diverse Medina and that is where we spent most of our time/days.   Lodging at the Riad Jaouhara, a beautiful place, we were inside the heart of the Medina which made for easy walking and access to everything we needed.  With cool restaurants, historic and beautiful buildings, and interesting shopping, we had our hands full.  NUR restaurant was amazing, with a 7-course meal set out in a modern Morocco setting, it had great service, ambiance with a water feature along the entire wall, with great food.   Just don’t bother with the Moroccan wine, unless you drink plain to sweet white-wines.  The other place I would recommend is Cafe Clock, with great food, an awesome rooftop atmosphere and a super unique ambiance; the place had over 8 different rooms/locations to sit and eat, including a small theater.

Our time in Fes was pretty chill, I’d say the highlight being the walk up to Borj Nord, and the Military museum itself, namely the amazing view at the top of the castle: it was stunning.  You could see the entire Medina; other cities, rolling hills, sheep, and mountains far off in the distance.  We also liked the Medina better than the one in Marrakech, believing the “wares” for sale were more of more variety and the city better laid out.   We are currently on a train ride over to Casablanca, enjoying the beautiful countryside as our 4-hour train ride chugs along…. A short couple of days after, we will be on a plane to Cairo Egypt, to see the Pyramids, Nile and whatever else comes our way! =)

We made it to Fas - Highfive!!

Our Riad, courtyard/lobby

Start of 7-course meal at NUR Restaurant

Breakfast!

Entrance to the Fes Medina

Nap Time

Medina Walkway

Camel Head

Just finding your restaurant for dinner can be an adventure in the Medina!

Workout @ the Riad!

Candace buying spices

Another group of people taking selfies with Nova

Train station, on the way out to Casablanca!!

PS I started taking pictures of the “Nova phenomenon”, where random people love on Nova everywhere we go.  So if you see her in pics with random people, either they asked if they could have photos with her, asked to hold her, or were drawn in by some Nova way.