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January 31, 2014 | in Africa, Travel

Road to Morocco, Part Tlata: A Very Saharan New Year’s Eve

morocco sahara desert camel ride

Day #11,580 1/2 {New Year’s Eve 2013}: There was one Saharan activity to which I’d secretly most been looking forward.

Riding a camel is just so Classic Desert, is it not?

morocco sahara desert camel
Ready the dromedaries!

Mr. M’s adorable mother Mama Betty somehow got the idea that her children and their multifarious luggage would be chartering camels from the edge of civilization to desert camp (NO).  Considering what an epic migration this would’ve been- it took us a couple hours by Jeep, and camels… saunter… at best- I was reluctant to tell her that we took a two hour tourist ride and arrived back at camp in true weak-sauce fashion, sore and limping.

morocco sahara desert camel ride
Cousin Z can confirm- even with this cushy set-up, the dromedaries aren’t the easiest creatures to saddle and ride. Pic courtesy of Brother B.

After getting astride your camel, it’s a jarring, rocking ascent as the beast stands up.  I wasn’t prepared for it and cursed emphatically.  (I like to think our Arabic-speaking guides imagined I was making small talk about the weather.)

But once you’re up… so fun!  Mostly because, with the wind in your face, you begin feeling a little like an intrepid desert explorer.  It’s kind of exhilarating being so far in the middle of nowhere.

morocco sahara camel dromedary dunes
My fuzzy friend agrees.

Exhilarating, and apparently liberating, too.  Although I’ve been forbidden from showcasing it here, a picture exists of the five of us on our camels in our self-wrapped turbans, yeehawing in a mid-lasso pose.  The best part of said glorious picture is that our guide is covering his face and appears mortified by the prospect of being seen with us, even despite the fact that we are in the middle of nowhere.  Glorious.

morocco sahara desert camel ride erg chigaga

[A ridiculous aside: Mr. M & I kept wondering how annoying it was for the dromedaries to cart us around and decided to do some Scientific Testing at home.  As in, I got on my hands and knees and had Mr. M sit on my back while I tried walk-crawling around the living room.  Even though I’m not a camel (which is admittedly a pretty big confounding factor… my methodology may need refining), it sucked.  My favorite part of this whole ridiculous scientific experiment is that when Mr. M came down the stairs, saw me on my hands & knees, and was asked to “try riding me like a camel, for research purposes,” he didn’t ask a single question, nodded seriously, and immediately took a seat.  Welcome to our house.]

morocco sahara desert camel ride
Riding through the desert on a camel with no name.  (Except for Mr. M, whose camel was, to our great amusement, named Jamal.)

Considering we did a grand total of zero of the work, camel-riding was embarrassingly exhausting.  (It must’ve been all that cursing and feeling like Moroccan Lewis or Clark.)

We recouped with a much appreciated lunch of salad (our only green salad of the trip- SO tasty), Berber bread, oranges, and Casablancan Flag beers; and while the boys hit golf balls into the dunes, we girls sat around the lunch table and enjoyed one another’s company.

As the sun began to set on 2013, one of our guides drove us further out into the huge dunes of Erg Chigaga.

We weren’t the only folks wanting to spend New Year’s by the dunes- our guide pointed out a group of nomadic Berbers, who had set up camp with a herd of goats at the base of the dunes.

morocco sahara nomad erg chigaga
The nomad camp & their goats at the base of the dunes. Pic courtesy of Brother B & Sister LP.

Mr. M had read how the closing of the Algerian-Moroccan borders in 1994 following the Western Sahara war divided the previously continuous Sahara and severely affected the normal trade routes of the desert nomads. The tension between the two nations is still palpable; on our way into the desert the day before, we’d seen multiple hillside signs made with colorful rocks that our driver Mohammed told us were a type of nationalistic graffiti reading “Moroccan Sahara.”

morocco sahara erg chigaga dunes
Moroccan or Algerian, the dunes are gorgeous and exactly what you’d expect of the Sahara.

Erg Chigaga is the largest area of dunes in Morocco, with some of the dunes reaching almost 200 feet in height.

And we’d come armed with one very important accessory.

morocco erg chigaga sandboard dune sahara
You can’t visit hundred-foot-high dunes without a sand board!

With my eternal fear of missing out on life, I once shared a list of 11 Things To Do Before I Got Old & Boring. Wouldn’tcha know that #10 just so happened to be snow-boarding?  (And #8 was spending the night in the desert!  Two birds, one stone, as they say. Although I hate that phrase because what evil person is trying to stone birds in the first place?)

Unlike snowboarding, sand boarding neither requires nor accepts any involvement other than just standing on the board.  You can’t turn or carve or shred… or even slow down, for that matter.  It’s an on-off switch.  You’re either zooming straight down…

morocco sahara erg chigaga sandboard
Don’t get too excited- I’m all style, no substance.

… or wiping out on your butt.

morocco erg chigaga dune sand boarding
Told you.

In the last daylight hours of 2013, we five stood close on the crest of the dune, quietly watching the color of the sand change by the minute.

The Saharan horizon is limitless, empty, exciting, and a little scary.  Uninterrupted earth seems to stretch on forever.

morocco sahara erg chigaga dune sunset
It was tailor-made for a New Year’s Eve.

Looking out at our futures, made more real by a brand new year, I think it should feel that way.  Life is nothing if not a blank slate… limitless, as yet empty, exciting, and… yeah… a little scary.

Back at camp, our leader Bobo treated us to a festive & typically Berber New Year’s celebration… starting with two lambs that began the day kicking it near our tents and ended it… well…

morocco sahara erg chigaga luxury desert camp lamb
While a ringside seat might have been wasted on this vegetarian, I enjoyed all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the presentation and serving of the meal.  Happy New Year’s Eve!  (For us. Not the lambs, clearly.)

Musicians had traveled out from M’Hamid (the nearest rural town, a couple hours away) to play us into 2014 around the campfire.

morocco sahara erg chigaga luxury desert camp
The most civilized picture I have before New Year’s spirits got the better of all of us. Bobo was especially excited and busted out dance moves the likes of which I’d never seen and will likely never see again. It was amazing.

When life is lived in the middle of nowhere, it seems rules and judgment are suspended.

You’re free to be an idiot on a camel… or completely eat it on a sand board… or dance like an evangelist at a tent revival. To live life however you so chose if no one else were there to put in their judgey two cents.

It made me want to bring a bit of the desert back with me.

The part that just didn’t give a crap what anyone thought of my self-tied (totally, 100% AWESOME) head wrap.  The part that laughed at wiping out on the sand board and got up to do it again.

morocco sahara erg chigaga sunset
Looking out on the as-yet unexplored 2014.

Life is our own blank canvas on which to create.

But the desert could’ve told you that.

Unsolicited Camel Facts! The Arabian camel from Northern Africa & the Middle East has one hump and is known by its species name- dromedary. Two-humped camels, like the Bactrian from Central & Eastern Asia, are a horse- ahem, camel- of a different color.

morocco sahara camel dromedary erg chigaga luxury camp desert
They’re also friggin’ adorable.  If I didn’t think she wanted to spit in my face and/or bite me in the boob, I would’ve snuggled her right then & there.

Despite their reputation as being spitty & cantankerous (tell me you wouldn’t spit if a stranger tried to hitch a ride on your back), camels are actually fairly intelligent.  When I worked at the Oakland Zoo, we trained each Arabian camel to “come” in response to a different shape in order to isolate them for treatments (e.g., one would come to the wall at the sight of a black circle, one to a green triangle, and so on)!

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Tags: Africa animals balls out desert holiday Morocco photography Sahara
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Comments

  1. Jenn January 31, 2014 Reply

    Oh my GOODNESS!!!!!! That last picture of the camel is so stinking cute! It sounds like riding a horse is much easier but I'd love to try a camel someday! Love reading your adventures....

    • Miranda S. February 2, 2014 Reply

      Aren't they adorable?! I just wanted to grab those cute, fuzzy ears! (Because I'm sure THAT would've gone over well...) In all fairness, I think I'm just terrible at riding things! Both times I've ridden a horse, I was super-nervous. They taught us in vet school that horses can ninja-kick you from any direction, and I've been wary ever since! I say if you're comfortable riding a horse, you'd have no problem with the camel! I bet you could even get up to a camel-canter!

      • Jenn February 3, 2014 Reply

        I'm afraid I have a healthy fear of horses...so I don't know if I'd actually be able to get on a camel...although I would love a chance to give it a try. :)

  2. Amanda February 1, 2014 Reply

    Another great post, makes me want to see it myself.

    • Miranda S. February 2, 2014 Reply

      Thanks, Amanda! The Sahara was really never on my list, and now- I'm not sure how or why I passed it over! It was surprisingly fascinating for somewhere seemingly empty.

  3. Pam February 2, 2014 Reply

    Oh wow. What an amazing way to close out 2013. Sure beats my Super Mario Brothers gaming marathon, haha. I've never once thought to myself 'hey, self, you should go to the desert,' but after reading this series of posts, I think it might have to go on my list.... which gets longer with every trip you take.

    • Miranda S. February 2, 2014 Reply

      Ha! There's zero shame in a Super Mario Brothers marathon! (Mr. M, my normally responsible Adult, partied waaay too hard that night and agrees that a game-fest would've been a far better life decision than 4 glasses of amaretto.) You know, I just posted this to another commenter: I never had the Sahara on my wish list, but darn if it didn't end up being one of the coolest places! It makes me wonder what other gems are currently off my radar...

  4. Pingback: The Road to Morocco, Part Rabaa: The Death-Defying Atlas Mountains

    […] Explore the previous day’s New Year’s Eve adventures taming camels & crossing things off my Before I Get Old & Boring Bucket List! […]

    Reply
  5. Randa @ The Bewitchin' Kitchen February 10, 2014 Reply

    Wow! What an amazing adventure you must have had! Once in a lifetime experience.

    • Miranda S. February 11, 2014 Reply

      You're so right, Randa! I kept trying to take "mental pictures" of being in the Sahara to capture the experience in my head. Definitely one of the coolest places I've been able to travel!

  6. Pingback: On the Horizon: Japan, Cambodia, & Singapore - Spend Your Days

    […] it just so happens that Brother B & Sister LP (you remember them! Part of our New Year’s travel gang!) currently call Singapore home, so Mr. M & I decided a detour was in order while we were in […]

    Reply
  7. Pingback: 11 Things To Do Before I'm Old & Boring - Spend Your Days

    […] 10.  Go sand boarding Did it, yo! (Saharan desert, Morocco; Dec 2013) […]

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  8. Camel Trip Morocco June 25, 2016 Reply

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