MOROCCO - MERZOUGA
PART 6 of 8
After Zagora we drove to Tinghir, where we stayed one night. On the Christmas day we went to see the other part of Sahara Desert that is situated near the small town Merzouga.
Driving to Merzouga’s Erg-Chebbi was like breathing in freedom. Long highways in the middle of nowhere. Free open space as far as your eye can see. Gas pedal is pushed down until the end. The velocity is 160km/h, that was the maximum that out Dacia Duster could run. The speakers grooving the car by the sounds of Meshuggah. It’s Emre’s birthday and we have the best hashish in the country with us gifted to us by one soulful host in Tinghir.
In the right down corner you can see our car. Emre has driver’s license but almost non of driving experience. Straight highways of Morocco is a perfect track and Emre has birthday. Let him drive!
Lonely camel near the highway on the way to Merzouga.
Merzouga, Morocco
We had a similar feeling to Marrakesh as we entered Merzouga. Although the town is small the streets are very busy. Once we parked our car out of nowhere a dude appeared. He was like a leech that you can not get rid off. Over and over again he followed us and tried to sell us his tours to the dunes. We had a tour reservation. Our connection was a man called Said (but not that Said from Zagora). That one should be a trusted one, because Said is the affiliate of the AirBnB hosts where we were staying in Tinghir. As we arrived, the other tourists were waiting for the caravan to take off. Those tourists with the ridiculous fashion: safari hats, ugly pink T-shirts Hollister and yellow or green clown shorts below the knees. We arrived at 15:00, so I was worried about the time because I wanted to photograph the desert at the sunset. Said calmed me down and offered mint tea and vegetables.
I didn't want to do that, but I was thinking that it can happen and yes, indeed it did have happened. We had to ride camels. Seeing those poor animals, who ride back and forth heavily weighted tourists non stop, you simply don't want to make more harm to the animal. But you have to ride it because its the part of the rules. The camp where we were going was about 5 km away from Merzouga. After an hour of ride our asses didn’t feel happy at all.
Camel ride is an enslavement for the animal and torture for the rider.
Quadracycles, 4x4 Jeeps and Road Off Motorbikes - all these reminded us of some kind of an amusement park. I knew that I could forget about the meditative silence that professor Fuder told me about back in my student years. On every dune tourists were taking photos of the setting sun. Mohamed in his red turban greeted us with his wide smile and stoned eyes. “Welcome!” - he shouted and guided us to the camp.
Erg-Chebbi is elevated 730 meter above the sea level and the dunes are around 150 meter above the surface.
In Erg-Chebbi you will not find a virgin dune, all penetrated by the human feet and car’s tires.
Sunset in Erg-Chabbi
Celebrating Christmas and birthday of one of my best friends smoking the best hash on the top of Sahara dunes, what can be better? Emre is smart, intelligent, has good sense of humor and he is a man of kind values. Sometimes in your life you can meet a person and you realize immediately that you have a very special connection. You understand that you have found a friend for life. A journey is one of the best ways to test a friendship. This is our second one and its only getting stronger. Can’t wait to go with him on our next trip.
At that night we felt in love with berber music. It has simple and groovy beats with detailed changes and slight shifts. They sing with short phrases, the melodies are simple and catchy. That was very unconventional Christmas for us.
If in Zagora in the whole camp we were the only guests, then in Merzouga we shared the place with tourists of different ages from France and Italy. It is dinner time and, of course, it is Taijin again. French guests brought some vine with them (although it is not that easy to purchase alcohol in Morocco). It was the Christmas Day, Jesus and Emre had birthday. Our hosts were lazy. Despite the cold night the hosts resisted to make the fire. Somehow we persuaded them to do the camp fire though. But once the fire almost went down they refused to tell us if they had more woods and where it was. Luckily me and a french military girl (unfortunately I can’t reveal more information, otherwise I will be wiretapped by the french DGSE) went on a mission and had found the hidden woods. I had to give a large bribe to one of the hosts in the form of the best quality hashish. The laziness of our hosts didn’t stop there. It was Christmas and Emre’s birthday. We were exited to hear berber music, because it is so groovy and hypnotic. We really felt in love with it. But our hosts refused to play (they were first class musicians). It had nothing to do with their religious concerns. Simply idleness. Our hosts - all men. Italian girls used their flirt and the berber percussion fired up the night into the rhythmical dance.
That day and night I will never forget. 300 km highway in the middle of the deserted huge area. Those huge dunes. Emre’s birthday and that nigh under the clear sky and the campfire.
On the next day I woke up early and went alone on the top of the highest dune that was available. I have never climbed huge dunes. The dunes were about 150 meter tall only, but because of the sinking feet in the sand you start to have a feeling that all of this is a mirage and you will never reach the top, simply because you stay on one place all the time.
After about 40 minutes I have finally reached the top. Desert is just unbelievable. As I have mentioned earlier, Merzouga is not that silent as Zagora. I though that I could get an hour of complete silence, but quadracycles and jeeps started to penetrate the wise silence of the desert with their churl engines.
While sitting on the dunes I was thinking about my conversations with the military woman. My brain tried to figure out how does it come together - professionally being in a military, engaging in the war zones in different continents and have such a great humor, joy of life, cuteness and very kind way of thinking. The stereotypes led me to the controversies. My brain played out different scenarios about what her character could be. Perhaps she is so nice and positivity-spreading person because she tries to compensate a part of her that knows that the military is an archetypal apparatus to protect and protect also means to kill, and maybe to kill not in the name of protection, but led by the notion of conquest? I would love to visit her one day and continue our philosophical conversations. But what a great night in the desert, beautiful morning and what a pleasure to be alive.
Another lonely camel on the way back
The night was so freezing that I got cold. We drove back to Tinghir to continue our journey back through the Atlas Mountain. But this time we will take another route through the mountains…
© Yuriy Ogarkov
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