Sandstorm in M'Hamid, Morocco

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Our guides and trusty camel companions in the desert

Since the trip to the dunes in Merzouga was a little disappointing with all the 4x4 tracks, we decided that we wanted to get out into the desert a little farther, and avoid the "vehicles and tourists".  At the end of the road literally, we arrived in M'Hamid.  One of the webpages described this area as "somewhere of nowhere", and it certainly was.  We decided to book locally and support the people of this little town, and managed to easily get ourselves on a 5 day camel trek out to the Erg El-Zahar dunes (Screaming Dune as it's called when the wind blows) and back.

We picked up supplies which included 10-5 litre jugs of water, and a bunch of oranges for some sweetness and flavour.  We set off early the next morning to take advantage of the cooler temperatures earlier in the day.  Our guides were Mustafa and Zaid, and we were told we needed two guides in case

Another curious camel between Zaid and Omar

one of them dies along the way, the other can get us home.  I guess that hit home a little, as I suppose we are heading out into dangerous mother nature, and anything can happen.  One was a camel man, and the other a cook, but it seemed like Mustafa did most of the work making all the food and leading the camels, and Zaid just laid around, while building and tending the fires whilst making tea!  He would get out this massive block of sugar and chop off a chunk to throw in the tea.  I came to really look forward to my sweet tea at the stops!!  Zaid also made this fantastic bread in the sand on our final night.  The bread we had brought was getting pretty stale by this time, so he made the dough, dug a hole, put in some coals with the dough on top, and covered it with coals and sand.  And voila...... a short while later we were eating delicious fresh bread cooked right in the sand!!!
They did both have a good sense of humour though, and we had some good laughs even with the language barrier.  I do think that Mustafa was a little sweet on Michelle, and who knows.... I might have been able to earn some camels for her!!  Just kidding, I kind of like having her around!!!
We found out early on that, a five day camel trek into the Sahara dunes does not actually mean you ride the camels.  To our somewhat surprise, they are there just to carry all the stuff, so we set out to walk in the desert for 5 days.  And we walked and walked and walked, probably about 20 km each day.  We would walk for 2-3 hours in the morning, then stop for lunch under some of the only shade around for about 5 hours, waiting for the sun to cool down slightly, the  we would set out for another 2-3 hours.  But boy, was the sand hot in the afternoon!!!!  I had my flip-flops on, and in the loose sand, it would cover your bare skin and it would BURN!!!  Sure toughened my feet up after 5 days of it!

Sandstorm in M'Hamid desert

Another bit of a surprise to us, was that we had no tent!!  We are unsure if the trip organizer "forgot" to give our guides a tent because he was actually dealing with a death in the family that day.  Or since we managed to reduce the price to 300 dirhams a day, maybe a tent was just not included in this price.  We never thought to ask, but here we were in the middle of the Sahara with no cover or protection from the wind.  Most of the time this wasn't an issue, but one night we had a big sandstorm, and laying in our sleeping bags, we got covered in sand!  All we could do was drape our sarongs over our faces and hope all our stuff was covered up well!!  Very rough night indeed, but luckily it stopped in the morning, but we didn't get much sleep.  We also had to deal with daytime sandstorms too, and these went on for hours.  Again, we had not protection from the wind and had to huddle behind our sleeping pads.  A bit uncomfortable, but the worst was getting sand in all our food that Mustafa had carefully prepared for us.  I ate a lot of sand in those 5 days!!

Curious camel at camp

Our other trusty companions were the two camels that carried all our gear (minus the tent), food and water.  Both named Lasfar which we found out to be the colour, they were very gentle, and just interesting to have wandering around camp.  Michelle really took to feeding them the food scraps, and they loved all our orange peels especially.  They were quite curious at times, stepping right in to our sitting area, or sniffing around to try to sneak some food.  At each stop, Zaid would attach the camel parking brake (tying their front legs together loosely), and they would wander off.  At first, we were a little concerned when we couldn't even see them near the camp, but Zaid always managed to track them down.  At night, he would put on the serious brake, in which he tied a strap around the knee, and possibly tied to the other leg also.  But they didn't seem to mind, and were there every morning!

All this talk, and yet none about the scenery.  In a word, it was surreal!  At first we were basically walking through scrubby desert, but there were small dunes around us.  With Algeria in the distance to the South, we continued to walk as the dunes got larger and larger, until we reached the Erg El-Zahar,

Martin climbing the Erg El-Zahar dune

which they call the Screaming Dune at 150m high or so. We set up a camp, and Mustafa and Zaid waved us off to explore the big dune before sundown.  As the sand was finally a little cooler, we managed to both climb up to the summit and have fabulous views over all the dunes as far as the eye could see.  Colours were quite amazing, sort of a gold-ish brown.  We met a few other tourists hiking to the top including a couple of French guys from the bus to M'Hamid.  As always, I love my downhill, so after some well earned time at the top, managed to run all the way down the big dune with the French friends taking a video.  Dig in the heels, and keep the momentum going!!  I think I could have stayed up at the top for days.
The remaining scenery was anything from dry river beds to rock desert that stretched for miles.  The rocks in the desert contained many fossils and shells from being under water at one point.  It was interesting looking for the fossils, but it sure dragged on for miles and miles and miles.  It was in the rock desert that we encountered a large cluster (not sure what the correct terminology is) of camels, including quite a few babies that were exceptionally cute, and hustled along beside the adults.  The camel-men, were the only locals we saw on the entire trip, except for this crazy old Berber guy, who appeared in the middle of nowhere and was yelling from the top of a sand dune.  He joined us for lunch, then a nap, then wandered off back into the dunes still smiling away!!!  We have no idea where he was going!!

Our bed for the night in M'Hamid desert

On our third afternoon, trudging our way through a big sandstorm, we arrived at our camp for the
night.  It was a fixed camp owned and we would have a roof over our head for the night.  We were the only guests staying that night, which meant we had time to spend with our guides and the 3 young guys who work at the camp full-time.  Omar, Jamal and Eunice were really nice guys, and it was great to hang out with them in a much more casual setting, rather than them serving us and catering to our needs like most tourists staying there.  Apparently, we were very good luck to them, because shortly after we arrived, the sandstorm was cleared by a rain storm.  Rain in the Sahara..... who would have thought.  It rained quite heavy for a short time too... and was very refreshing after being sandblasted for hours.  In the morning, we awoke to some bright lights, and quickly realized that it was lightning.  I hustled up the dunes to try to get some photos, and wouldn't you know it, the storm stopped just before I got to a good photo sight.  Disappointing, but still in my memory bank along with so many other great experiences on this journey!!!   *Stub