After a picnic lunch in an oasis we travelled on dirt roads to an "Auberge"...hotel in the desert at a place called Merzouga, which we found out later is only 70 kms from the Algerian border. Here we packed our small backpacks for our camel trek and overnight stay in the Sahara.

We rode the camels for 2 hours into the desert...arrived with stiff legs and sore bums to our nomad tents in the sand........we trekked around a bit...had another tagine on a carpet spread on the sand...washed it down with some wine we had brought with us...and slept in our clothes....woke at dawn to watch the sun rise and rode back to the hotel....The Sahara is breathtakingly beautiful in its isolation and never ending scenery...an unforgetable experience ( except for the sore bum)......washed at the auberge and set off for our Berber guest house....more soon

High Atlas Mountains

We crossed through the High Atlas mountains travelling south to our desert camp in the Sahara. Our guide, Samir, changed his clothing today to his native Berber attire. He says we will be more accepted if he dresses this way and as a Berber he is expected to dress this way when he is in his home region. We are seeing our first "oasis" now. It is amazing that the surrounding hills can be so bare and the valleys so lush with crops and date palms. We called into a regional town and went to the market to buy our picnic lunch. we purchased beautiful crisp baked bread and canned tuna and some fruit.....Sharon couldn't resist a walk thru the meat section...she would have bought a goats head but had no where to cook it !!!! next stop the Sahara