Er-Rissani

This trip became another chance to learn the Moroccan lesson of “Trust there is a system”. We were offered a tour out to see the Sahara by our friendly Riad owner Saad. It came about while sitting on the Riad terrace one evening when Saad came up to ask us what we had planned for our stay. We explained that we had an open schedule and no plans so were happy to see what was on offer. He kindly explained that the tour would start with breakfast at a nearby cafe. Then, we would take a drive out to the Sahara. Once there, we would ride camels into the dunes to witness the sunset. Then ride the camels back to a camp in the dunes where dinner, local African drums and dancing would be had around a fire. Hard to resist an experience like that!

After another day in Fes to explore and relax on our own, we left at 7:30 am to meet our driver. We were picked up by our country and western-loving shuttle driver from a few nights before and drove into the Medina for a typical Moroccan breakfast of baguette, eggs and jam. As we were dropped at the cafe our driver told us we would be going in another car from here and he left. This cafe was obviously the meeting point for a lot of tours as it was full of travellers each being given the same set breakfast menu and a thrive of locals hustling around different tour vans parked up on the kerb.

After finishing brekkie a guy started asking who was going to Merzouga to which we said we were and we were directed onto a waiting bus. Having been told by Saad that our car would be up to 6 people we already felt like this was going to be another case of the Moroccan lesson. Now in a full bus of about 15 people, we started our 10-hour drive south.

The surroundings of Fes were immediately a bare arid landscape. But, almost unbelievably, the whole drive so far had been various plantations of apples and olives and stone fruits. Literally paddocks of well-irrigated crops set in barren rocky fields.

We’d also been told we would stop at a monkey forest along the way which I really couldn’t imagine. Nowhere we’d seen so far looked like a forest and it definitely wasn’t somewhere I’d expect monkeys. My previous experiences with monkeys have been mostly from a distance with shy little Pygmy monkeys in Peru that you only saw occasionally, or loud howling monkeys in Guatemala that were high in the trees of the jungle and you couldn’t even see them. Or the grubby bag-snatching monkeys in Thailand that would chase any unsuspecting tourist that wasn’t watching their gear. In what was an attraction solely for tourists, the “Monkey Forest” was better than expected. We pulled off the side of the road that had a handful of make-shift stalls set up and immediately in a small patch of trees were about 15-20 decent-sized monkeys. Literally just chilling on the ground watching the ridiculous busloads of tourists that stopped by for their 15-minute stop and a photo. As soon as I got off the bus one of the larger ones came straight towards me and was only stopped from climbing my leg when I shooed him away. Kind of shocked why he’d come straight up to me, I realised as I walked off that the rustling of the empty muesli bar wrapper in my pocket had another one heading my way.

The rest of the bus trip dragged on through the day with us crossing over the Atlas mountain range before eventually arriving to a waiting Hilux. After our stop for lunch we’d expected we were running late so were anxious as to whether we’d make it in time for the sunset over the dunes. Again with no apparent system, the passengers from the bus were separated into different vehicles before heading off in different directions. With Jessie and I sitting on a tray load of luggage, we went off-road to find our camels waiting at the base of the dunes. On our last day in Fes we spent searching the markets for some traditional Moroccan clothes and turbans so now our moment to play the part had arrived. Out the side of the hilux we changed into our possibly culturally-inappropriate robes and off on the camels we went. No more than 15min into the dunes we reached a crest and dismounted to watch the sunset. So apparently the system works 🤷‍♂️.

Our camel guide hilariously directed us to strike different poses for photos. Then, we got back on the camels and headed to the camp. We arrived at a campsite at the base of the dunes. The campsite had permanent tents and a large communal area. The area was beautifully lit by Moroccan-style lamps with people sitting around enjoying the desert evening. This looked great, and after our day of trusting the system would work we felt relieved that we’d finally made it. We grabbed our tea and found a cushion outside to finally relax and enjoy the serene desert experience. Except before we could even take a sip of tea, a driver called out to us and said we needed to grab our bags. Not what we wanted to hear.

We were transferred to another camp that was extremely bland by comparison with absolutely no atmosphere and a cold reception. Regardless we still had the dunes right there for us to go explore in the beautiful warm evening air. After dinner (which was at a third camp!), we grabbed a pillow and went out to lay on the crest of a dune. Once the moon had set the stars were incredible. Almost as a sign that our day was complete, a massive shooting star shot straight across the sky in front of us.

The next day we wandered back into the dunes to enjoy the incredible colour change of the dunes during sunrise. Afterwards, we returned to the camp for another typical Moroccan breakfast of instant coffee, dry croissant, dry roti and dry cake. We had booked into a hotel in the nearby “town” for the next night of our desert trip so after getting a lift in we had the day to ourselves. We had been told the hotel had a pool but as we would come to realise, it was important to keep our expectations low and hope for the best. The Hotel was much better than we expected, especially after being shuffled between three different camps the night before, and the continual change of vehicles that seemed to happen on every trip. The pool, while physically there, wasn’t quite the refreshing oasis we hoped. A stagnant milky brown colour we opted to sit by the side in the shade and take some time to read and snooze before it got too hot. The day got to about 38C which meant there wasn’t much for us to do through the day. We snuck out to stroll through the town's single Main Street to find some lunch and then explored the “Park” that was shown as a 5-star rating on Google Maps. Turns out the park was just a Date-palm plantation but nice to wander through regardless.

Our hotel was facing directly to the rolling red dunes of the Sahara with one dune in particular standing proud high above the rest. Since we had nothing else planned we decided we would climb it for sunset. We left the departure till as late as possible to try to avoid the peak heat of the day but even an hour before sunset the heat was still easily above 35C. We donned our Moroccan clothes and trekked into the dunes on our summit adventure. Besides the heat of the sand it was easier than expected and in about 35mins we made it. The view was unbelievable! By far a massive highlight of the trip so far!

The next day we were picked up at 8 am and started another full day (12hrs) bus transfer to our next destination. Marrakesh!Read more