Writing from the road again!

Erfoud was magical! Today we are driving south from Erfoud, along the high Atlas Mountains. We will get to Marrakech tomorrow. We have a stopover tonight, staying in a riad again.

But back to Erfoud. We had crossed the Atlas Mountains a couple of days ago (the macaque day), and we have been on a high plateau. The hotel in Erfoud was amazing. I didn't take any pictures in the hotel (except for the fossils), but here is the link to their website. The entire hotel had fossils everywhere, including the bathroom counters. The rooms were large and had carpets everywhere. The food (breakfast and dinner buffets) were huge.

We started our explorations at 9. We first went to a fossil co-op, where they talked about how they prepare the fossils from the giant rocks. Then, of course, we shopped there. I was lucky, because I have a friend who asked me to buy some items for him, so I got to shop with his money! I was looking for a large ammonite, and they kept bringing me polished fossils! It took me a while, pointing to raw stone, before they brought a large unpolished ammonite from somewhere outside. Perfect! Except I now have to pack home a 10.5 kilo (>22 pounds!) rock! Shipping for that one piece would have been at least $400, so it will be cheaper to either pay overweight charges or check a second bag. (My friend will pay for that too.)

From there, we went to the souk, which I really enjoyed. The aisles were much wider than Fes or Tangier, and it was not a touristy location. Besides the regular vendors (food, clothing, spices), there were also service shops, like blacksmiths, tailors, barbers, cleaners, etc. It was Friday, so many of the shops were closed for the day. (Everything opened up again after dark—the town was jumping!) I'm very careful to ask the vendors if photos are okay. I'm normally shooting what they are selling, not the people, and almost everyone tells me okay. Interestingly, the blacksmiths said no. I moved on, but I was sorry that they didn't say yes—they were working on anvils and it was very interesting.

I have said that I don't take pictures of people, but the people here have me breaking my rules.

We moved on to the mausoleum of Moulay Ali Cherif, which had beautiful gardens and tile work, then to a nearby ksar, a fortified village that is being restored. From there, we moved from our trusty bus in to 4-wheel drive vehicles for the drive into the desert. I was with two other women in the last vehicle, and our driver decided that we needed some excitement, so he kept going over dunes instead of keeping to the road like the other vehicles. It was a good 30 minute drive to the tents where we were having lunch. I didn't take any pictures of the tents, but there were vivid carpets on the ground and the walls.

Then, it was on to the camels! We had to have mint tea first, of course. (Everywhere we have stopped, we start the visit with mint tea.) Then, it was out to the camels. They were in strings of four, with a local man leading the camels into the dunes. But first you had to get on the camel. They were all kneeling, and, starting at the back, they would stand and there you were, high in the air. I had to hang on, as the camel rocks forward and backward pretty violently as it stands and kneels. Then it was up into the dunes! The gait is not smooth at all. I decided the best bet was just to slouch and relax into the movement, and that worked pretty well. (I wasn't sore the next day.)

When you look at the camel's feet, as it steps in the sand, the foot spreads out. When I tried to climb a dune on my own later, I understood how useful that would be. I thought the only way I'd be able to walk far in the fine, loose sand would be with something like a snowshoe.

The scenery and colors were spectacular. I was able to take pictures and got some lovely images of distant camels against the dunes, like the one at the top of the page.

Once we got a way into the desert, we stopped and dismounted. Well, technically, the camel knelt and I jumped off. We spent at least 30 minutes there. The plan was to view the sunset, but it was too cloudy for that, unfortunately. The guides were really good at taking our pictures both off and on the camels. They'd take our phones and pose us, both off and on the camels. The images were good, and the guides earn better tips.

Then it was back up on the camels and back down the dunes. Note to anyone riding a camel: riding down is rougher than riding up! BTW, the camels were very docile, and there was no abuse at all, no prods or anything like that. I had a crust of bread and fed it to the lead camel in our group (the only one without a rope in its mouth). Camels apparently like bread.

Then it was back in the 4-wheel drive vehicles for the ride back to Erfoud. We discovered that there is a paved road almost the whole way. The sand and dune experience was just for us tourists on the way out. We got back and had dinner, then had to pack to leave the next morning.

Oh, want a good step count? Ride a camel! My Apple Watch thought that I had a really good day, stepwise. Of course, they weren't really my steps, but it looked good!