Greetings!
It's 10pm on Saturday night. I haven't been able to transfer today's photos from my cell phone to my MacAir. I suspect the Kasbah's wifi has lost it's full power, because it's acting very slowly. I'm saving the post after each new line I type, in case I lose it entirely. And believe it or not, it's going to get worse over the next three or four days.
We drove for nine hours today, from Fez to the entrance to the Sahara Desert. We left after the best breakfast of the three days we stayed in Fes. Pat and I are still coughing and sneezing, as is most of the bus. Heading southeast, we climbed to an Alpine ski village (with Cedars of Lebanon and European chalets). The French built it on these Middle Atlas mountains during their colonial period, and it now includes a Saudi-funded university being attended by their kids and other rich Moroccans. A really beautiful place.
Beyond it, there is a long stretch of flat desert serving once nomadic shephard families with lots of sheet and goats. Then a fairly large city with a military base forming the core of the residents. This road leads to the border with Algeria, and tensions are not resolved between the two countries.
Before the city, we started seeing the beginning of the largest oasis in Africa stretching along a river carved between increasingly majestic and strangely warped geological formations shooting sky high. The amateur geologist in me wanted to wake up Pat and get her to see these wonders, but my better nature let her sleep until we were half-way to the end of the river, and at the base of the real Atlas Mountains. Zak woke up the entire bus for the last part of the trip, which included an ice cream stop, thousands of date palms, many old abandoned kasbahs, and several more small newer cities on the way to our destination.
Though the Kasbah is very upscale, the isolation out here gives us a hint of what the next few days will feel like. Tomorrow, we take a four-wheel drive trail runner to our Sahara Desert Camp. We'll be experiencing lots of what Zak has planned, and it will no doubt be a spectacular adventure. We're all becoming very flexible, and have agreed to give him every moment to fill with his personal, local, regional, and national insights. An we're all hanging in there and loving it.
In the morning, I'll see if the wifi is stronger, and try to upload some photos from today. Otherwise, the next few days may be a bit of chaos. Hope you'll hang in there with us.
Hooray!
To see all of the photos taken yesterday, click on: Saturday, Sept 21st, Afroud, Morocco
Before the city, we started seeing the beginning of the largest oasis in Africa stretching along a river carved between increasingly majestic and strangely warped geological formations shooting sky high. The amateur geologist in me wanted to wake up Pat and get her to see these wonders, but my better nature let her sleep until we were half-way to the end of the river, and at the base of the real Atlas Mountains. Zak woke up the entire bus for the last part of the trip, which included an ice cream stop, thousands of date palms, many old abandoned kasbahs, and several more small newer cities on the way to our destination.
In the morning, I'll see if the wifi is stronger, and try to upload some photos from today. Otherwise, the next few days may be a bit of chaos. Hope you'll hang in there with us.
Hooray!
To see all of the photos taken yesterday, click on: Saturday, Sept 21st, Afroud, Morocco
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