Our first stop of the day was at a Berber village at the base of another gorge. The ground here was apparently fertile enough to grow crops, with a few hundred acre plots divided into portions just large enough for a single family. Our guide was friendly enough, showing us plots of alfalfa, pomegranates, and olives. Eventually, however, we were led into his family's rug shop and were peddled rugs at exorbitant prices for over an hour. We later learned the other group was given the exact same pitch (down to calling the tea "Berber whiskey").
PJ eventually called shenanigans on the whole event and we were returned to Rashid.
Rashid took us into a nearby gorge for lunch and to visit some more Berber roadside stands. People were selling rugs, scarves, and turbans. We all bought rugs for roughly $30 a piece. Lunch was good and at this point very similar to most other meals we had eaten.
We left gorge shortly after lunch and resumed our trip to the Sahara. Our next stop of note was at a fossil factory of sorts. Apparently Morocco is rich with fossils. Several stands hawked fossil-jewelry and geodes. This particular shop fashioned counter tops, dishes, and tables containing fossils of various shapes and sizes. This was Dan's favorite.
We then drove a short distance before leaving the road for a long, dirt trail. We drove on this trail for half an hour, passing camels and large sand dunes along the way. We eventually arrived at a large compound beside a lake. Down the hill from the compound was a small set of corrals with about 20 camels. We gathered our things, including a snowboard we rented on the spot, and climbed on top of the camels for the journey into the desert.
The camels immediately reminded me of Star Wars. They yelled deeply and loudly, just like the animal Hans and Luke cut open and used as shelter at the beginning of Episode 5. Earlier in the trip, we saw people that were undoubtedly the inspiration for Jawa costumes.
We rode the camels for roughly an hour into the Sahara as night was falling. The desert was surprisingly different from the landscape we had previously encountered. While the previous terrain reminded me of Arizona with small shrubs and brush on mostly bare ground, the Sahara was pure sand dunes. Some of the dunes rose several hundred feet and were quite massive. When we arrived at the small camp, we immediately climbed one of these large dunes. Being the only member of our group with any snow-boarding experience (though extremely limited), I was appointed to ride it down.
The board was in decent condition, certainly good enough to ride down a sand dune, but I did not have boarding-boots. My shoes were much too small for the bindings, making turning impossible. Thus, I crashed my way down the hill, tumbling whenever we I got going too fast.
That night we ate dinner with the entire group and got to know everyone a little better. We slept in Berber tents and used our saddle blankets for warmth. I suppose this is how cowboys of yore used to do it, but I had never imagined using saddle blankets as bedding material, much less camel saddle blankets. They stunk, but we were tired enough that we quickly got over it.
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