we set our phones to wake us at 5:45 for our camel ride at sunrise - so so cool - the shadows from the dunes were otherworldly, the full moon was sinking into the west and there was no sound aside from the camels' hooves on the sand - our guide/cameldriver mohamed stayed with us on 1 of the dunes while we sat there wordless at the stark beauty all around us as the sun came quickly over the horizon - as always he was at our disposal and if we had wanted to, we could probably still be sitting there!
breakfast was again at our tables atop carpets in the middle of the camp - knowing that we had about 7 hours of driving ahead, we did not linger, but rather put together all our suitcases (now we had all 4 of our original group, plus the one large Gladstone bag that Beatrice had lent us in Marrakech, plus all of our plastic bags from Marjane and Carrefour) and got into our 4x4, which had been meticulously cleaned overnight (which was the case every night)
we struck out over the dunes and sand, trusting in Lahsen to find our way eventually to Taroudant - our route went across Lake Iriki, which was an actual lake (i.e. a body of water) that used to annually fill with water, & pink flamingos would flock there. a dam was built near Ouarzazate in 1972 that stopped the flow of water (and i suppose provides irrigation and energy up north, but it does seem a bit harsh to take away an entire 18miles/30 km-long lake!). the dry lake bed has tons of fossils and we stopped to get a few
then back on the 'road' for a lunch stop in the middle of nowhere (no idea of the name of this town) - we were getting a bit desperate for something new - moroccan cooking is great, but at least in tourist spots seems to be nothing but tagine and brochettes - we ordered a pizza which was a mistake, because they use greasy canned cheese and it was quite a while before we could even think of eating pizza again!
by the time we stopped in Taroudant it seemed like (and had been) a very long day - our riad was fantastic including a pool and this time we actually had bathing suits! we were too tired to even leave the premises, and only realized in the evening, when we went up onto the riad's roof terrace, that we had missed something really special - Taroudant is surrounded by medieval-looking ramparts (the whole city lives within the walls) and it would have been cool to take a carriage ride around - but again the heat and tiredness conquered us - this is one of the places where i would spend at least a couple of nights next time (probably ourika would be another, and of course the desert camp)
tomorrow we will have an easy drive to Essaouira, where we actually do get to spend a couple of nights - the idea being to let us rest up after our arduous journey (made a lot less arduous by the fact that we didn't have to do any driving!)
