Jill in Casablanca: An magical night in the desert..

Leaving Fes and heading toward Merzouga to the desert we drove through snow in the Atlas Mountains. It was a beautiful sight and made me a little home-sick for my Colorado mountains.

Then we drove through rain....even over the road at times. The road got a little "sketchy" at times....one lane, half of a lane..... At one point we had to move off to the side of the road and let about 7 or 8 of these large semi-trailer trucks carrying army tanks pass by. They were coming from Algeria into Morocco.....we didn't ask any further questions. :( !!

The drive was LONG....8+ hours long. But the drive was so interesting and different all along the way.

When we got to the turn off for the Sahara Hotel the road almost disappeared! We kept driving forward and ... there, out of the dust, appeared the hotel!

And then came the time we had been looking forward to....meeting our camels that would take us into the desert! We had talked about names for our camels, because Moroccans don't usually have pets, let alone, name a pet.

This one was mine! I had named her "Lucy", but quickly found out I would change it to "Lucas"! ;)

Eric jumped on right away!

Jenny loved her camel right from the start!

Jim's camel was tied on right behind mine in the pack. Jim's camel was breathing really hard and snorting a lot. We were laughing and making fun of him until we realized he was really hurting and struggling with a cold! Poor guy.

EVERYTHING in the desert was amazing......including the shadows!

Happy travels! Just FYI.....sitting on a camel is REALLY high up and camels are very bumpy to ride on! :) But the stories I had heard ahead of time (camels are mean and dirty and smelly.....) didn't describe our camels at all. They were a very well-behaved, clean, nice bunch of camels!.....even kind of cute!


At sunset our guide took the camels around the dune of sand as we walked up to the top, sat and watched the sun set.

My kids sitting in the Sahara Desert!

Christmas 2010! Merry Christmas family and friends and wishing you a wonderful New Year! Blessings from the Lindstroms!!

The sun setting over the desert.

Our camels were ready to take us on to camp after the sun set. We ended up riding the camels about 1 1/2 hr. and then arriving at the "camp".

At "camp" there were tents set up like this one and we were invited into one for dinner and another for sleeping. There was another group of people in the next tent over, but we had a tent all to ourselves.

Unfortunately for Jenny, she made it through the meal, but then was very sick most of the night. She made quite a few trips in and out of the tent....not fun. She commented how bright the stars were all night and that she hardly needed a flash light at all. The night was cold, but we had plenty of thick blankets on us to keep us warm.

This was a quick shot of the tents in the morning as we are getting ready to leave.

Great morning shot....Jenny - thankful to just be alive! Jim - thankful Jenny made it through the night! Eric - just wanting more sleep! :)

And there are our camels waiting to take us back to the hotel for a hot shower and breakfast!

I loved watching their legs bend when they were getting up and down! Being on them when they are getting up and down....now that is a different story.....a little frightening actually! Hold on TIGHT!!

Jenny switched camels with Jim so the sick camel wouldn't have as heavy a load. Here she is giving him a pep-talk before the ride back. He was so sweet!