May 19, 2025
We were up before 7am today to pack up, climb the hotel tower for another view, have breakfast and hit the road before 8am. We had over 6 hours in the car today driving from Ouarzazate to Merzouga and Abdul suggested we get an early start. We went up the hotel tower to see the view before breakfast. Lenny was thrilled saying, “Its just like a lighthouse!” Hopeful we can add a lighthouse or two to his list during our time in Europe.
After hitting the road with Abdul, we made a quick mid-morning stop at Kalaat M’gouna, a city famous for its roses. The city is just wrapping up rose harvest season and we saw the last of the harvest arrive at the women’s rose cooperative. We learned how they make rose water, rose oil and other rose cosmetics. We bought a rose/strawberry lip balm at Lenny’s request
We had another few hours of driving and Harry Potter before we then stopped at the Todra gorge. Len was fast asleep in the van but was quickly roused after he caught sight of Ollie getting dipped head first into the stream by Kyle. Both boys enjoyed an invigorating upside down dip before we continued on walking along the stream for a bit to stretch our legs. After getting back in the van, we told Abdul that we liked walking along the gorge and from the far back seat we hear Lenny ask, “Wait whats a whore???”
The boys were starting to get antsy and crazy with hunger as we approached the town where we planned to stop for lunch. While Harry Potter was playing, they were throwing fake spells at each other from the middle and back seats. “Black spray sendiosa!!” “Mouth close freezium!!” We stoped at a small town called Ferkla el Oulia and ate at el Khorbat. We stepped out of the van and knew we had arrived close to the desert and were not surprised to learn it was 99 degrees out. The boys ate a lunch of mostly bread and oil with a few pizza bites while we played a hasty game of Uno. Len’s cheeks had gone super red and the boys were constantly bickering in the heat. We were happy when lunch wrapped and it was time for the last leg of driving for the day.
It was raining in Merzouga when we arrived and saw small puddles along the roadside. The rain is super rare here but Abdul said that everyone gets excited when it rains. We hoped the rain from earlier in the day would mean less sand swirling in the breeze during our walk through the desert to our camp.
Sadly the pool was closed due to the rain and wind when we arrived at the welcome riad. We had been talking up the pool for a few hours to the boys so they were obviously a bit let down. While we waited in the reception area to be taken to the desert camp, Abdul continued to try to teach the boys the disappearing finger trick. They’re both still working on their dexterity and memory so would repeatedly go up to him asking, “Abdul can you set up my fingers for me?” While the boys played disappearing fingers, Kyle and I shifted our luggage into two backpacks so we would only need to bring a few items out into the desert with us. We are really running low on clean clothes for the boys at this point and hopeful we can sneak in some laundry in Fes.
Soon we were at the edge of the desert and about to get on our camels that would take us to the desert camp. A few guys selling scarfs spotted us as easy tourist targets and ran over to us to sell us their goods. We ended up buying scarfs from them for ~$5 USD per fabric scrap even though we noticed they were selling for less than $2 in town, but we were a captive audience and wanted to be prepared in case it was windy in the desert.
Ollie was slightly bummed about not having his own camel, but after getting through the camel standing up after having mounted him, we immediately knew doubling up was the right choice. Kyle and I were gripping tightly with our hands and inner thighs to keep ourselves and the kids stable on the camel. They’re far wobblier than horses and wider across the middle. My legs are still sore a few days out!
Our little camel caravan stopped on the dunes to ‘watch the sunset’ per our guide Hasan. Kyle and I were confused, though, because the sun was still very high in the sky at this point. The boys did wind sprints and raced each other up and down dunes for over an hour. Walking in the city for 10 minutes yields complaints but they were thrilled to be out here. The 6 hour car ride and a 3 hour nap for Len also fueled this play session. During our break, the camels were tied up and eating grass. Hasan tied their lead around one of the front knees which prevented camels from running away. The boys repeatedly kept playing too close to the camels and were scolded by me, Kyle and Hasan as their kicks are wildly strong.
The sun started to dip behind the mountains and we were again on the move towards camp. We arrived at camp a bit after 8pm and were welcomed with tea service and snacks. We learned that there are about 100 camps on the outskirts of Merzouga in the Sahara, but they are all situated amongst the dunes so they all feel quite secluded. We then made our way to our tent which definitely fell into the “glamping” category as it had a full bathroom and air conditioning. We took quick showers and made our way to the dining tent for dinner. At this point, it was approaching 9pm and we were all fading fast. The boys dined mainly on the khobz (bread), olive oil, vinegar and salt while Kyle and I enjoyed the harira, aubergine tagine and chicken kabobs.
Ollie had big plans of sandboarding at sunrise so he requested to go to bed immediately after dinner while me and Len went to check out the drum circle by the fire. We stayed for just 10 minutes at the drum circle since Len was looking like he may pass out at any moment. Back at the tent, the drumming was still quite loud so we had a mini drum circle dance of our own before getting into bed and blasting our noise maker on high.
