Then after a good night's sleep we had a quick breakfast before we were introduced to our guide, two camels and their handler and off we walked through the back "streets" of old M'hamid, in search of the Sahara.
We walked for a couple of hours through palm trees and ancient kasbahs before stopping for lunch and resting in the heat of the day.
We then set off in the direction of our camp for the night through pretty strong wind that was thick with sand and after a few hours made it to that night's stop. While the guys set up camp and fed the camels, we headed up to the top of the dunes for a very surreal sunset out over the desert.
That night was spent around the campfire gazing at more stars than we ever knew existed and I then managed to convince Nix that sleeping under the stars would be a good idea. It was.
Nix got her first real introduction to roughing it on this trip and came through with flying colours, number twos out in nature are her new favourite thing.
The next morning we set off again, this time conditions were perfect. We walked through some pretty interesting, moon-like landscapes, came across some wild camels and were just able to lose ourselves in our own thoughts for a few hours.
It was then time to stop for lunch before the 4x4 picked us up and we undertook the most audacious off-road driving I've ever seen to get us to the main event. There was no track and the bloke driving was just taking directions from the guy in the passenger's seat and we were driving through and over the top of dunes, almost getting bogged on countless occasions. The view on the way was a good one.
After a couple of hours of driving Erg Chicaga appeared in the distance and slowly crept closer and closer. There are smaller dunes scattered all around Erg Chigaga and where we'd walked the previous day but this set of up to 300m high dunes just pop up out of nowhere, it's truly amazing. After half an hour it was on us in all of its immense glory and after dropping our bags and having a quick tea (during which a camel popped its head through the door to rapturous laughter) we set off for the top of Erg Chigaga's peak. What a work out that was however the view from the top was unbelievably rewarding and worth the struggle. I'll let the photos do the talking here.
That night we just sort of basked in the pleasure of that incredible sunset.
The next morning we began the journey back to our mud hut and stopped in to check out a real life oasis.
Unfortunately we were brought back down to earth pretty quickly when our bus back to Marrakech that left the following morning at 6am was delayed by snow, yes you read right, snow, in Morocco. Four months in Europe and snow didn't look like delaying us but we get to Morocco and we end up having to stay in accommodation that is best described as a hole. That was made up for by being invited around for a traditional couscous dinner at one of our guide's houses. V good!
Thanks Mum and Dad!!
That night was spent around the campfire gazing at more stars than we ever knew existed and I then managed to convince Nix that sleeping under the stars would be a good idea. It was.
Nix got her first real introduction to roughing it on this trip and came through with flying colours, number twos out in nature are her new favourite thing.
The next morning we set off again, this time conditions were perfect. We walked through some pretty interesting, moon-like landscapes, came across some wild camels and were just able to lose ourselves in our own thoughts for a few hours.
It was then time to stop for lunch before the 4x4 picked us up and we undertook the most audacious off-road driving I've ever seen to get us to the main event. There was no track and the bloke driving was just taking directions from the guy in the passenger's seat and we were driving through and over the top of dunes, almost getting bogged on countless occasions. The view on the way was a good one.
After a couple of hours of driving Erg Chicaga appeared in the distance and slowly crept closer and closer. There are smaller dunes scattered all around Erg Chigaga and where we'd walked the previous day but this set of up to 300m high dunes just pop up out of nowhere, it's truly amazing. After half an hour it was on us in all of its immense glory and after dropping our bags and having a quick tea (during which a camel popped its head through the door to rapturous laughter) we set off for the top of Erg Chigaga's peak. What a work out that was however the view from the top was unbelievably rewarding and worth the struggle. I'll let the photos do the talking here.
That night we just sort of basked in the pleasure of that incredible sunset.
The next morning we began the journey back to our mud hut and stopped in to check out a real life oasis.
Unfortunately we were brought back down to earth pretty quickly when our bus back to Marrakech that left the following morning at 6am was delayed by snow, yes you read right, snow, in Morocco. Four months in Europe and snow didn't look like delaying us but we get to Morocco and we end up having to stay in accommodation that is best described as a hole. That was made up for by being invited around for a traditional couscous dinner at one of our guide's houses. V good!
Thanks Mum and Dad!!
