I spent my best birthday ever in the desert. Conclusion of deserts: they are v v sandy and also camels are amazing.
After a relaxing day building a website and doing literally nothing else in a completely empty hostel, I fell asleep nice and happy. But when I woke up in the morning and came over to breakfast, there were like, twelve people at the table. It was such a difference from the emptiness of the day before, and it felt like a completely different place – not bad different, just different. As it turned out, they were going to be my group to go into the desert, which was good because they were all really cool.
We hung out for a bit, packed up our stuff, and then went out to eat lunch together. When we got back, it was CAMEL TIME! This was something I was probably too excited about. We walked over to the camel place, and they were all sitting in a circle and I was FREAKING OUT. They told us which camel to go to (for weight and stuff) and you get on them one at a time, and they stand up with you on them. They are all tied together, which is good for when they are walking but difficult for making them sit down and stand up again – everything happens one camel at a time. It feels like a dangerous carnival ride when they stand up, because of the way they awkwardly shift their weight – but SUPER FUN!
The Moroccan man leading our tour walked in front of the camels to lead them while two groups of us followed – there were a lot of us between the people from my hostel and another group that had joined us. There was a group of three Aussies, a couple of German girls, a few German guys by themselves, a couple MORE German girls, four Brazilians, a Japanese guy, and probably a few more people that I’m forgetting.
We rode for maybe an hour and a half to the first camp. The Sahara was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen: the sand dunes look absolutely unreal, the sky was perfectly blue, it was just the right amount of warm, and I was riding a freaking camel through it all. I had so many moments where I was just trying to take it all in and to enjoy what I was experiencing.
When we arrived at camp, we settled in and all sat down and talked and bonded while our guides made dinner for us (we were so spoiled). We snacked on nuts and drank super sweet mint green tea (it’s a thing here, that’s what everyone drinks) and played games to get to know each other. I felt like I was at camp. They told us where to go to watch the sunset – on top of the biggest sand dune around.
I knew it would take a few minutes to climb up, and we all started out at a run to get up there faster. We VERY QUICKLY realized that there was no way we could run all the way up there, because sand is terrible to climb. Several minutes later, we were all on our hands and knees, panting, desperately trying to make it to the top before the sun set. We all tried different techniques: I was doing some zigzagging, someone else put their shoes on their hands (okay, I’m not sure why that would help you, but apparently it did). It took forever, but we eventually all made it up there – to be greeted with SO MUCH WIND. The last couple meters of the climb were nearly impossible, because the sand was blowing way too hard in our faces. The solution? Tied our scarves completely around our faces.
The sunset was beautiful (as expected), and more comfortable once we made it to the other side of the dune where the sand wasn’t blowing on us so much. Some of the guys had brought sandboards up, and used those to get back down, while me and one of the Aussie girls who were boardless decided to log-roll down. Highly recommended.
And then they served us a ridiculously delicious dinner – Tangine, which is mixed cooked vegetables, as well as this amazing rice dish that I was obsessed with.
After dinner, we sat around a campfire while the guides played music on their drums, and tried to get us all to sing songs that we knew, which all of us failed at. They wanted us to dance, and everyone was scared to, until I was like okay screw it and I got up and got almost everyone else up with me, and we learned some traditional dancing. But the best part was they taught us how to play the different instruments! I had a lot of fun on a couple of the drums – one was a long single drum, and then the other was like, what are they called, bongos? Like two drums next to each other, different sizes.
One of the guides sat with me and taught me different rhythms on the drums, and we started talking a bit. He was very impressed with my drumming, and then he used definitely the most African line anyone has ever used on me (also please picture this in a very strong accent): “After the fire is out, would you like to come up on the dune with me?” Okay, so he was cute, but I don’t know EXACTLY what that means coming from a Moroccan guy, and I was super tired and not totally in the mood to find out. Also, it was just funny.
I very nearly died laughing, but instead I used my excellent deflection skills that I’ve developed.
“Oh my god, that dune is TERRIBLE, there is no WAY I’m going back up that thing!” BUT HE WAS UNPERTURBED: “We don’t have to go up the same one, it can be smaller.” I just laughed innocently and was like “ah, we’ll see how late we are here!” And then I went to bed before everyone was gone and before he could get any more ideas. Sometimes, you just don’t have the energy for these kinds of escapades.
I began my birthday very grumpily dragging myself out of bed for the sunrise that I did NOT care about in the moment, but I knew I didn’t want to miss. I took approximately a bajillion photos of it so I could feel like it was worth it, and then joined everyone for tea. Then a bunch of people that were only doing one night had to leave, and only nine of us remained: the four Brazilians, the three Aussies, one German guy, and me. It was sad to see our new friends leave, but it was also nice to have a bit of a smaller group so we could get to know each other better.
And then the actual highlight of all of my days here, breakfast, which was yet again super yummy. I’m a big fan of the bubbly pancakes here (no idea what they’re called) that you roll up with Nutella or jam into a sort of crepe roll thing. SO GOOD. And then it was time for the nine of us to head out to our next destination.
I was all packed up before everyone else (I was shocked as well) so I went to my guide to help with the camels. As soon as I expressed interest, he started teaching me. I learned how to get the camels to sit down, and I helped him pack some stuff on their backs, and then he let me pick out which camel I wanted. I wanted the biggest one, which ended up feeling totally different from the relatively small one I had been on the day before.
We rode to a nomad camp, where a few people and a couple little kids lived. Everyone put their stuff down and started chatting, but now that I had gotten a taste of working with the camels, I didn’t want to stop. Our guide let me lead the camels over to the “river,” which is not so much a river as it is more desert with a few trees growing – AKA camel lunch. I learned that camels only have to drink water about once a month, so usually all you have to do to feed them is bring them to an area with trees or grass.
I had them sit down so we could untie them from each other and take the ropes out of their mouths (I got all nine of them down all by myself!) and then my guide tied one of each of their front legs up so they were walking on three. This is what they do instead of tying them to something: they can’t walk very far on three legs, but they can still go where they want in the area to eat what they want.
We walked back to everyone, and had some delicious food that the nomads made for us, this sort of giant calzone thing filled with vegetables. And then I fell asleep for awhile oops. We sat with the little girl – one of the Aussies had shown her how to knit, and she was making a scarf. It was nice to just sit outside and enjoy each other’s company and the weather. They fed us a little bit before we set off again (and of course, gave us tea) and I sat the camels down for us and then we were off to our camp. We walked for a change of pace, and just let the camels carry our stuff. Our legs hurt SO MUCH so this was a nice change.
Our camp for the night was SUPER NICE. By super nice I mean there was actual real live running water, and toilets you could flush. I helped with the camels again – I learned how to take off all their ropes from their mouths and tie up their legs! We walked up a (much smaller) dune to watch the sunset, and had way too much fun taking group photos. And then we sat down in the “dining area” for a bit, ate some snacks, drank tea and wine, played cards, and talked before dinner, which was YET AGAIN amazing.
After dinner, we played more games (mostly just talking ones now, including my favorite game of assumptions) and then sat around a campfire for a second evening. Definitely the best birthday I had in a long time – nature, desert, friends, and camels.
The next morning, I accidentally slept through the sunrise – I literally just never woke up until breakfast was almost over. But it was okay because I saw it the day before. We rode back to the city, and we met some month old baby camels that we got to pet, and a ONE WEEK OLD BABY CAMEL KISSED ME AND IT WAS LITERALLY THE BEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO ME. I really like camels, if that wasn’t clear. And the guys were like “stay and help us with camels!” Which may be my new dream job.
We headed back to our hostel, where our absolutely incredible host fed us a huge breakfast (even though a bunch of us aren’t even staying here tonight). There’s no electricity for awhile because they turn it off once every two weeks for maintenence, so between that and the desert, I haven’t been able to go online in days. It’s been awhile since I’ve been somewhere so remote that I had no access to the internet. I forgot how nice it was: no matter what is happening in the world, in the moment the only thing that matters is what YOU are doing, right here, right now. It really makes you live in the moment and enjoy the people you are with. If there was ever an awkward pause in conversation, people weren’t just scrolling through their Instagrams. We had to talk to each other. And we got to know each other really well really fast.
After all this, I took an actual shower (with water that was almost warm for the first half) and accidentally fell asleep as I tried to write. I think I’ll be taking an overnight bus to Fez later. As much as I’d like to hang out here for another day or two, I only have a few days left to travel, and there are still a couple places I want to make sure I have to time to go to.
So yeah. In conclusion: best birthday ever, and camels are the best thing that have ever happened to me.