The Way to the SAND

After a really long bus ride (1 1/2 day with stops on the way) we arrived in Merzouga to start our desert excursion. In our imagination, we would climb the sand dunes, relaxed on the back of the camel, sand surf, finish the day admiring the millions of stars in the sky and sleep in beduin tents. We read a lot of reviews and everyone seemed very excited and recommended that long distance trip. Unfortunately, we were late due to a flat tire of the minibus and a sandstorm. One hour before sunset we arrived in Merzouga, where we started our camel ride. Even we had an impressing landscape to admire and cute camels to ride (we named them Heidi and Peter) we were not that satisfied. Along our way through the desert you felt like the clever counterpart of Hänsel and Gretel, who can find their way easily back. Why? The way to the tents was kind of a poo street. A camel poo street. In front of the beduin camp you found the end of the "street": the big camel poo field. Anyways, we would recommend to go to Merzouga directly without a schedule and find empty spaces there to enjoy the sahara desert.

One of the most interesting stops on our way was Ait Ben Haddou, a village part of the Unesco world heritage since 1987.

We were guided by a student who was born there and still lives temporarily in his house. He told us about the history of his home town and about the movies which were shot there ( Games of Thrones, Prince of Persia, Gladiator and much more) with enthusiasm. He invited us into his home and showed us his original berber key to unlock it. We were overwhelmed by his hospitality and wished we could have spent more time at this place.