The Sahara Desert - 3 Day Trip

On the 2nd of August we were picked up in a mini van from our hostel in Marrakech and embarked on our 3 day desert trip!

Windy roads around the Atlas Mountains

We headed south, winding around the Atlas mountains, past Berber villages and arrived at Kasbah Ait Benhaddou (Where Gladiator the movie - 2000 was filmed). Here a guide walked us to the top of the village and then we had a quick lunch before heading towards Dades River.

Kasbah Ait Benhaddou

Before stopping for a swim in the river we visited a small village located in the valley of the Gorge. This particular village was set up by the gorvernment to help widowed and divorced women who lived in the mountains earn money by making carpets and farming fruit to sell at the market. This money helps send their children to school who otherwise would never go.

View of the Valley

During this stop over we walked through the valley where fruit and vegetable grow and were welcomed into a local home to see the carpets being crafted. The women aren't pressured to make the carpets by a certain time but are allowed to go at their own pace to ensure the quality is good and also to keep their fingers in tact. Most women will spend 1 to 2 hours each day working on a carpet, with 1 carpet taking 2 - 3 weeks to complete (depending on the detail and materials). The carpets are made using sheep wool, camel wool and cactus silk. All materials are then dyed naturally with saffron (orange / red), indigo (blue / purple) and other natural resources. Before weaving the carpets the materials are soaked in vinegar so the colour is fastened into the fibres.

Demonstration of how Moroccan carpets are made

Dades river was extremely beautiful, I have never seen a river with such crystal clear water. It was very refreshing after being in the bus for many hours with no air-conditioning.

Dades River

Dades Gorge

That night we stayed in a hotel at Dades Gorge before heading off the following day to the Sahara. We arrived in Merzouga at 5pm where our camels weren't quite ready for the ride into the desert so we had the opportunity to cool off and go for a swim in the pool before embarking on a 2 hour sunset camel ride into the desert.

The Sahara

The desert was extremely peaceful with nothing insight except for thousands of stars, sand dunes and a couple of shrubs. That evening we climbed one of the sand dunes where we could see the Algerian boarder and various military buildings.

Our Guides entertaining us at the campsite with some local music

Our Tent that slept 6 people

Sunrise Camel Ride 

At 4:30am we were woken up for our 2 hour sunrise camel ride back to civilisation. Unfortunately I got a much smaller camel then previously. It was extremely uncomfortable to sit on for 1 minute let alone 2 hours so you can understand how happy I was when we eventually got back to the hotel in Merzouga.

At the hotel we had breakfast and then it was back on the van with most people heading back to Marrakech but instead we were dropped off at Rissani where we caught a 10 hour bus to Fez.