I decided to amp the photos on this post. I thought they turned out so great. They are about 20% larger than what I usually post so make sure and click on them. I cant wait to get them home and photo shop them.
From Meknes I was in for a long bus ride down south to the Algerian border. The small shabby village of Merzouga is directly beside an astounding sand dune called Erg Chebbi. My Sahara desert experience in Egypt was so spectacular that I need to see the other side.
Its very hot and dry, as you would expect. At night I woke up every couple hours coughing from the lack of moisture in the air. In fact my journal and LP are both warping from the dryness.
I haven't seen many tourists for the last week or so. I mostly run into people from France. Morocco's population speaks Arabic and French mixed with smatterings of Spanish, English and German. While dodging touts I often pretend not to speak the 5 or 6 languages they rifle through. Sometimes Ill say im from a random place in the world like Seychelles or Pitcairn Island only to have the tout change his language to Portuguese, Ukrainian or some other random dialect. You cant fool them here!
The town of Merzouga is pretty tired. Housing is made up of mortar, hay, donkey dung, straw and other random items. The dust is crazy as well. Walking through the streets in search of a photo op a massive cloud of sand hits the street I'm on. The fully covered locals chuckle as I run for cover.
After a solid day and a half of rest I was ready for the trek into the Sahara and up to the top of Erg Chebbi. The dune is Morocco's most visited desert site. The best time to be in any desert is either for sunrise or sunset. Unwilling to be up at 4 am I made my way to the base of the dune a couple hours before sunset.
Walking up a sand dune is like taking two steps back then one leap forward. The sheer size of the dune combined with the heat was enough to make me pause half a dozen times on the way up. I made it to the top with 30 minutes to spare. These 30 min were full of great photo ops and small selection is below. Running back down the dune was really fun.
Enjoy the shots!
D.
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