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To get to the campground, we go offroad for about 20 KM. Mathieu
is driving a small 1.4L car with 4 people in it, in the dark. Needless to
say, we get stuck in the sand.
One of the guys takes over and does the driving. He only gets stuck once! |
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This is Justin & Mathieu's tent. It is made of bamboo, some
plastic and ... rugs. The rugs sort of keep the wind out.
The lighting you see in this picture is about 30 minutes after sunset. It
is quite dark - luckily Justin & I both have flashlights. In fact, we have
that crank
flashlight - which was quite useful (and made the Berber caravan crew
jealous). Once the full moon rose we could see pretty clearly. It was so
bright I could read outside without a light. Cool! |
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This is a better picture of the end of the sunset. The white
dot is the moon. When this picture was taken, you still needed to use a
flashlight. |
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Our hut has rugs on the floor and a table. They bring the usual
mint tea service plus some candles. |
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We got delicious brochettes of lamb. The meat had been rubbed with a lot of spices and roasted on top of the fire. You can also see the bread in the bottom of the picture.
Moroccans make great, flavorful breads |
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About 2 hours later (10 PM), we got a couscous. What you see
are carrots and other vegetables that have been stewed together along with
some chicken. They are all layered on top of the couscous. The couscous
is steamed, unlike the way we've cooked it. The broth on the side is to
put on the couscous. This was the best couscous/tangine I've ever had.
Note that they gave us spoons. If we had been real Moroccans, we would be eating with the three fingers of our right hand and no utensils.
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The Berbers living at the camp were kind enough to join us
and play their instruments and sing. The guy on the left is playing a drum
which is made of a ceramic shell with camel skin. It produces a rich deep
sound when hit in the middle and a very tinny sound when hit on the side.
The guy in white is playing a 3 string guitar. The strings are made from
Camel guts. The backing is made of a combination of wood and stretched camel
skin. It is a very difficult instrument to tune.
The singing is very energetic and rhythmic. They used a lot of triplets and syncopation. I was able to record some of the singing. Click to listen to sample 1 and sample 2
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More singing. In this shot, you can see a different type of drum. The guitar is in the corner left of the shot. By the man in white's left arm, you can see a metal object.
This is also an instrument - it works like a double sided, large castanet. We tried to play it - and we just couldn't keep up with the rhythms. |
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The guys are really getting into it |
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Everyone loves appreciative audiences. They were quickly our friends. |
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We promised them copies of these pictures.... They were very excited about that. |
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Once the sun sets, it gets quite cold. Our "beds" consisted of (a) the ground (b) a rug (c) 2 blankets. Justin was freezing-so he was wearing a lot of extra cloths.
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TRUE STORY:
Our friends ran out of blankets and they needed to arrange for the camels
for the next morning. They ask if they could borrow the car. I'm a little
bit apprehensive. It's late (midnight), dark, sandy and the middle of nowhere.
It's also a rented car - under Mathieu's name only. I give them the key
and tell them that I would be in big trouble if the car got scratched. They
promise it will be fine and they will be back in 15 minutes. 30 minutes
later (remember: polychronic) they give us some extra blankets.
The next morning, we look at the car. It's fine. What's interesting is that
before leaving, they had drawn that symbol on the hood. When I ask, they
tell me that it was to protect the car! It warmed my heart to think that
they would do that extra bit - just to make sure that the car was fine.
We kept the symbol the rest of the time and never had any problems! |
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We get up at six. It's pretty dark. Around 6:45, the sun starts
to rise, and we walk into the dunes. In this shot, you can clearly see the
full moon, the glow of the sunrise against the sand and the amazingly steel
blue sky. I'm facing the sunrise in this shot.
You can also see that I'm freezing - it's probably 35F at that point. |
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This is before we can see the sun in the horizon. The sand dunes make an interesting color contrast. |
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This shot is pointing east. |
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At 7:20, the sun is peeking... |
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At 7:21, you can see it much better. Boy-is it fast! |
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The sand dunes and the mountains in the west change to this beautiful pink color. |
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The dunes warm up pretty quickly. By 8:30, we're already taking
some layers off |
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Our tent.... Now you can really see how the walls are actually
rugs |
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When we come back from our walk, they had set the rugs and
the table outside our tent. |
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The cook brought us breakfast. |
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Someone brought the camels
They are really Dromedares or Arabian Camels because they only have one
hump. We learned a few things about camels from the Berbers (and Wikipedia)
such as:
Average life span is between 30 and 60 years old. The taller one (first
in the picture) is a full grown male - 20 years old. The smaller one is
15 years old - adolescent.
The hump is fat, not water. The fat is converted into energy *and* water.
This allows them to go without water for 2-3 weeks.
Once they find water, they drink for a long long time. When they urinate,
they do it for a long time. We witnessed this. Sometimes - up to 3 hours
They eat everything - including meat
Moroccans will eat camels and drink their milk. We found camel sausage
in supermarkets. Camel taste kind of like "fish": greasy and light.
They can move pretty fast - up to 40 mph (64km)
They walk very quietly. Their hooves are padded much like elephants.
When they walk in the sand, you just hear a little swoosh as the sand
gets compressed
The way they walk and their hump shape makes for a pretty uncomfortable
ride. Because they are broader than horses, and because of the hump, it's
a very stable ride. Because you can't squeeze with your legs, your butt
moves up and down more with the obvious consequence :)
They bray just like banthas from Star Wars
Camels are led - you can't steer them. This means that you can't really
take a camel and go explore a new region of the desert. That's makes them
only really useful as pack animals |
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Mathieu riding the camel. Note the fairly wide back. |
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Larger camel - in close up. |
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Caravan we see as we ride |
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The sand dunes had lots of different paw prints. We think that this is a shot of Kangaroo rats sliding down the dunes. You can see the prints before they slide down |
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Our friends- rewrapping Mathieu's head |
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Our friends spend a lot of time playing music. When we come
back from the camel ride, they were playing. When we walked around later,
they were playing.... Great entertainment.
Click to see movie |
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If you ever want to go into the sahara for short or long trips
- these guys did a great job. Call them up :) |
