Fez To Fez

IN THE DESERT

We were able to take it easy for the day in Hassilabbad a tiny hamlet near Merzouga and short camel ride from the Erg Chebbi sand dunes of the Sahara. Mohammad introduced us to his wife and two young children and they shared mint tea and bread with us in their humble home. To Mohammad we were now to be known as Ali Baba and Fatima. A young Swiss man named Marcel joined us at the Camels House that morning and would prove good company for the next couple of days. Late afternoon saw us getting ready for our night in the desert. Around five pm as the heat of the day began to become less oppressive we saw the arrival of five camels. Also a Dutch couple joined our group now numbering five headed to the desert bivouac. The camels were loaded up and it was time to mount them. Cindy and I were quite excited for this night but also had a certain amount of trepidation about the levels of discomfort for this alien experience. I was assigned the largest lead camel, which we had heard would also be the “quiet one,” but by nature is also the tallest one. Indeed it is quite a distance to the ground perched upon the single hump of the dromedary. As the camel stands up it first lurches backwards and then forwards and just when you think you are up and ready there is the extra bucking bronco motion to catch you off guard. There is a metal handle that we were advised to hold onto – but “not too tightly.” The loping movement of the camel takes some getting used to. The Berber camel guide, on this occasion Assou, the brother of Mohammad, understands the camels well and walks in front of the camel train leading the first camel with a rope. Assou reminded us that when we walk uphill we should lean forward a little and when going downhill: “lean back and hold on tightly.” This was sage advice as the downhills were not easy to negotiate. On the outbounds journey I managed to lose both my camera’s lens cap and the clipped shades for my glasses. Both were miraculously retrieved the next morning. Apparently losing a small object in the desert is not as bad as a needle in a haystack.

My very own camel

 We rode over the dunes with shadows lengthening as the sun started its descent. 

Camel train shadows

Assou

We alighted at our Berber tented camp and had time to climb to the top of a dune to experience the sunset. Our guide prepared mint tea, also known affectionately as Berber whiskey, followed by a great tagine to assuage our earned hunger. The camels were allowed to roam off by themselves, which caused some initial concern among us weary travelers, but Assou assured us that they would be back and ready to go in the morning.

The stars came out in all their magnificent abundance. As our discussion began to wane, the experience of the magnitude of the universe began to beg small questions concerning the nature of existence, the shape of infinity, and the undeniability of impermanence.

I had decided to attempt some new experiments with astrophotography. The Milky Way did not seem to be showing up so, with much encouragement I tried a time lapse. I will not know the results until I put together the 240 photographs that will make up an eight second time lapse of star movements. This process meant that I had to set the camera to fire photographs at intervals for four hours. I was a little worried about leaving my equipment set up during the night in the elements. At 3:30 am I woke up to retrieve my camera and then took some photographs of the now emerging Milky Way.

Our camp under the stars

The Milky Way

In the morning we rode back wearily to the Camels House, had a good breakfast, took a shower, said out goodbyes to our new friend Mohammad, and packed up the car for the “six hour drive” to Fez. Our new young friend Marcel came along with us as he was headed in that direction also. As we were leaving town, a motorbike pulled up next to our car and a young man delivered a gift to us from Mohammad consisting of a fossil necklace each to remember him by leaving us with sweet memories of Berber hospitality.