8 September - Rabat to Meknes

We slept in until our 8:00am breakfast and then hatched a plan for the day. Our only constraint was that we had to wait until 2:00pm to pick up our Mauritania visa. The original plan was to go to Fes that day, but I decided that we could only make it to Meknes.

We spent the morning catching up online and doing a little planning, then took a walk to go to the post office and lunch.

The post office visit turned into a small ordeal. The first post office we walked to was not actually a post office, despite the sign outside. However the guy was nice enough to give us directions a quarter mile down the street to the proper post office. We walked down there, then took a number and waited. The post office was also a bank, so there were both types of business being done here. After waiting for about an hour our number was up, I handed the postcards to the lady and she said they don’t have stamps for international mailing. What?! We just waited an hour! That’s disappointing.

They understood our frustration, and the security guard waved us out and walked us down the street to a kiosk that also sells stamps. The guy behind the counter stamped  all of our postcards, and then I dropped them in a mailbox. We should have done this to begin with. Oh well.

We walked across the street and sat down at a nice cafe that had sandwiches and pastries. The place was nice, but a little chaotic, and the fact that we couldn’t understand what they were saying made it comically confusing. We managed to pay for the foodand go sit outside, then we a laugh about it. 

We wandered our way back to the hotel. By then it was time to check out and set off to the Mauritanian embassy and pick up our visas. First, Mark and I had to go retrieve the bikes from the garage on the other side of town and bring them over to near the hotel. We just came over and parked on the sidewalk. It will only be for 10 minutes…

We arrived at the embassy at 2:15 and the security guard waved us into the gate with urgency, because they said they were closing! We were only 15 minutes past 2:00! We went in, the lady applied our visas to our passports, and we were done. Off we go.

The rest of the day was mostly freeway to Meknes, an easy 90 mile ride. We booked a hotel in the suburbs of town which was a nice change of pace from being in the city center. They had easy parking out front and a beautiful swimming pool that was very refreshing.
 

9 September - Meknes to Errachidia

We set our sights southeast for Merzouga which is 2 days away, but the first stop was just before Errachidia. We departed Meknes around 9:30am and shortly after, the road began to ascend into the Atlas Mountains. The road became more twisty and we climbed into a natural park area that was quite wooded. For several miles there were macaque monkeys out and about on the side of the road, a neat surpise for all of us! They stared at us as we drove by, and there were some people who had stopped to feed them.

The ride was nice, but the temperatures exceeded 100F, and there were some stretches of wide open highway that were a bit tiring. We finally reached our stop in the Ziz Gorge at Kasbah Hotel Jurassique. We didnt' have a reservation so we planned to just walk in.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a guy who tends the place, and he said they have both camping and rooms available. Okay, great, we said, and we asked to see the rooms. He took us on a tour of the hotel building which was nice, however no A/C. I opted for camping so I could get a breeze. The evenings and nights are a little cooler, and sometimes indoor lodging can be warmer if there's not much air circulation.

There were no other guests there when we arrived, but within a couple hours one van and one bus of tourists showed up. There was a group of young people from Italy and an older group of French people. It made for a lively evening. The dining room was full, so we were seated in a smaller dining room that had a couple tables. We sat with a German family who was on a 6 week road trip in their VW camper van and we chatted with them. They had a 4 year old, and he was cute. 

Our evening of sleep was quite hot. Additionally, there was a little bit of strong wind with rain so I had to close up my tent while I slept which made it a little stuffy. The weather calmed down later in the night and I did sleep okay.
 

10 September - Ride to Merzouga!

We were ready to head to Merzouga after a nice breakfast at the hotel. It was shaping up to be hot day, as it was already 94F by 10:00am! Just as the weather predicted, we were over 105F by mid afternoon.

As we arrived in Merzouga I was navigating us to the Sahara Garden Hotel on the north side of the Erg Chebbi dunes. Google maps had us deviate from the gravel road we were on, out into the sand, so I stopped to evaluate which way we should go. Shortly after, a guy on motor bike shows up and says he knows the way to the Sahara Garden. I told him I was concerned about Mark and Renee driving in the sand and the assured me there was a way with minimal sand. Given the confusion, Mark and Renee decided to hang back while I go sort this out.

I followed the guy across the open field on dirt, rock, and a little sand on our way to the hotel. It was a lot of fun, but all the while I could see a road off in the distance running parallel to us. Why were we driving here when there was a perfectly good road? “Too much sand” he said. I was skeptical— I’ll have to check the road out myself later.

I arrived at the hotel, checked out the rooms, and all looks good. It’s a nice walled property with a swimming pool, lounge, and restaurant. Lodging options include safari tents or indoor hotel rooms with air conditioning. You can guess what we opted for….

I returned back the highway to find Mark and Renee. The guy on the little motor bike led me out the same way we went in. Once again I’m thinking, ‘Why aren’t we driving on that road over there?’. We get out to the highway and I part ways with the guy. Of course he wants a tip for his services so I give him 100 dirhams (about $10).

I rode down the highway and retrieve Mark and Ranee and find them sitting in the shade at a gas station. Coincidentally a guy who works at the hotel was at the gas station. (Evident by the company logo on his SUV.) He offered to take a couple of Mark’s bags, and let Ranee ride in the car. This way it would be a little easier ride for Mark on his heavy bike, in case we encountered any sand.

Remember when I said I was skeptical of the guy on the motorbike who led me off-road to the hotel? Well, on our way to the hotel this time I followed the guy in the SUV and we took the ‘main road’ to the hotel. It was a nice gravel road most of the way there with a little bit of dirt at the end. No sand at all, in fact there was more sand on the alternate route the other guy showed me! I guess I got hustled. Oh well, no harm done......But if I see that guy I'm going to tell him. 

We refreshed ourselves in our rooms for a minue, and then had some mint tea by the pool. We discussed our interest in touring the desert, and the hotel host said they offer overnight desert tours, and he recommends we do tonight.

We departed at 5:00pm and took a tour of town in a 4x4 vehicle. We visited a new home under construction and we could see how they build their buildings from mud and straw. It’s actually quite energy efficient for the desert climate. The builder mixes the mud similar to making pasta. He makes a well of dirt on the ground and then adds water in the middle until it’s the right consistency. At that point they fill it into a form that is the size of one “block”, about 3 feet long and 2 feet high on the wall. The process is repeated along the wall create the house.

We then drove out to the black stone desert to look for fossils. The stone here is a dark grey marble and the ancient fossils of the sea life that once existed here were very visible. It was really cool.

Along the way to the dunes we also stopped at a nomad settlement and got to visit one family homestead. They had multiple tents set up: one for cooking bread complete with an earthen oven built into the ground, one kitchen tent, and one tent for eating and sleeping. The lady made us tea and we sat for a moment. It was a very peaceful place, very quiet. All you could hear was the wind and the goats down in the pen area. Our guide explained to us that the woman keeps the homestead, the animals and the children while the man goes out and works during the day. 

The rest of the ride was an exciting drive around and onto the dunes in the 4x4. It was a lot of fun—I wished I was driving. We stopped for a couple photo ops and to watch the sunset.

Just after sunset we walked barefoot over one big dune and arrived at our camp for the evening. The hotel had arranged a couple tents for us at a ‘luxury camp’. There were also other groups staying here, so we all sat outside for dinner. Dinner was a delicious spread of vegetables and some meat, cooked tagine style of course. It was all good. 

The place was nicely decorated with carpets on the sand, lighting, and proper toilets. I had considered sleeping under the stars, but the wind picked up after dinner and it became uncomfortable to be outside due to the blowing sands, so I retired to my tent.
 

11 September - Rest day in Merzouga

We woke early at our desert camp for a sunset camel ride. We met at 6:30am outside our tent get on our camels and head out on the dunes. It was an exciting experience to mount a camel and then hold on while the camel stands up! The temperature was nice. We climbed up and around a couple dunes, then found a place to stop. The sunrise was spectacular.

We returned to camp for breakfast with the other tourists (darn tourists!). It was a bit crowded, and our quad ATV’s awaited, so we packed up to go for a ride. Once we got our helmets fitted, we took off for a ride all around the dunes and back to town. What a blast! We meandered up and down and around the huge dunes, and then at one point we climbed up to the top of what must have been the second largest one there. Easily a couple hundred feet above town. It was beautiful. We made our way back down to town and then rejoined our hotel guide at his SUV for a ride back to the hotel.

On our way back, we stopped for coffee at a cafe and sat for a moment. Ranee wanted to stop at an Argan oil shop to purchase some of the coveted local beauty product, so our guide took us to a place he recommends. I had spotted a local Yamaha service shop just down the street, so I walked down there and was able to buy some Yamaha oil for my motorcycle. I’m coming up on an oil change in just a few hundred miles, so I wanted to have the oil that I need.

One last stop. They brought us to the local 'oasis', which is analogous to a community garden where produce is grown. Here we found almonds, dates, and paprika, and hot peppers growing among other things. Each family in the community has a plot and it is irrigated from the local well, which sources water from beneath the sand dunes. 

At the end of the day Hassan from the hotel offered to take me out to the desert and I could ride my motorcycle in the sand. I was excited at the idea, but also quite nervous about it. I removed all my luggage from the bike and we departed around 5:00pm. Hassan and another guy drove a 4x4 and we set off across the desert plain. The terrain was mostly rocky with a little bit of sand, but the sand increased as we went on. Riding at high speed across the loose sandy surface, it was easy to roll onto the throttle and fishtail the bike a little bit. It was a blast.

They led me gradually into larger crossings of sand which also became deeper. I was getting a good feeling for how the bike moved—which is to say that the bike moves where it wants and you must only keep balance! At the end of the ride they drove back across the plain towards the hotel, but then veered straight onto and up a large sand dune! I guess I’m following them! It was a bit scary, but I committed to it and rode right behind them at around 20 mph. Then there I was, riding on a sand dune! The bike handled surprisingly well once you have a feeling for it. It’s a bit like driving a boat or a jet-ski in water. I was hooked, that was the most fun I’ve had so far on the bike. Amazing.