Hi,
Well as you can see, I loved the camel riding. After awhile, we got into the gait of our particular camel. Mine was Baba. The Berber camel boys were fantastic - friendly and couldn`t do enough for us. My camera is acting up, especially after it was dropped, (not by me)and after a little boy from our lunch stop at the oasis played with the zoom. He was so enchanting and delightful, I couldn`t say no. As you can see, I`m starting to get the hang of this keyboard. I still get turned around in the medinas but not too lost. When I last wrote, the group was just getting to know each other, but it has really melded now and our tour leader is terrific. He really enjoys the job. The camping in the desert was a real experience. With all the packages for food, water, personal stuff, sleeping bag, the drum I bought, etc and the rush, I left my gortex jacket and liner on the bus. It was -3 C at 5am the first morning and only warming to 0 C the second morning. During the day it was about 18 - 20 C but cooler in the shade. Each evening, the Berber camel boys, the cook and the driver of the support vehicle sang and drummed. Mahammed would call "Barbara, where is your drum?" Some of us danced and clapped. The others just watched. Their rythms are very different and more complicated than ours. We had a fantastic time. Can`t wait to see the photos(I have at least one of me on a camel). The most interesting was when I took a break from riding and walked with them across the desert to the oasis. We saw a mirage. We were going across the "fryingpan" which hits 50C in summer but was very comfortable for us. If we went directly across from the pass, we would hit Algeria(the border is closed and it is also full of land mines from WWII). We did a circle route around some mtns that I am sure I have seen pictures of in books. When we had to cross the river(that is normally only puddles), it was running about 3 - 4 ft deep. One of the camel boys had to go wading to find a spot to cross. Then one of the first camels decided to sit down in the middle of the river. Everthing Went crazy. They made Rob get off although he was dry up until then, because they were worried the camel would drown. Then most of us got across - Baba was excellent crossing the river although otherwise he was very unfriendly and didn`t like having a passenger, the young camels were afraid to cross. So two of the camel boys had to take two other camels back across to get Keri and Robyn and lead the two young camels behind the bigger and older camels. This was near the end of the day so the sun was starting to set and it was getting cold and they (the Berbers) were soaking wet. We still had another hour to camp and arrived after sunset. So we had our advenures and many more.
The Tenerif Berbers and the Todra gorge were fantastic. The Tenerif Berbers too couldn't do enough for us(we were there before the camel safari). We had too short a time at Ben Ait Haadou but we were on our way to Marrakesh and still arrived after dark. Our hotel is in the medina at Djemma el Fna; it is insane. I`ve seen the snake charmers, story tellers, musicians, fortune tellers and all. This is a quiet timeout here at the internet station. Communications with people are so funny - a little French, Arabic, English, Spanish, Berber and signs. Tomorrow morning about 11:00 we leave Marrakesh for the High Atlas Mtns to go trekkiing for a couple of days but not to the top of Mt Toupcal.
Oh, I forgot to tell you, when we were crossing the Middle Atlas Mtns at Azrou, it was snowing so much, the pass was closed and we had to wait for over 2 hours for it to open. Even then, we went in a convoy with a snow plough leading. So we didn`t see any Barbary Apes(2-3ft high monkeys) but I saw them last night in Djemma el Fna.
Times running out so all for now.
Love to everybody,
Barb
