Our funny story for this expedition was that we were supposed to meet everyone at the Expedition main office at 7 a.m. Since we stayed outside the medina, we had to factor in the 30-minute walk from our hotel. So we got up 5.45 a.m. to do the walk by 6 a.m. so we had enough time to get a bit of breakfast too. Well, it's a good idea to get the time zone right. When she landed, Moe's pilot gave her the time to be one hour ahead of local time, not realizing the Morroco was on GMT all year round, which meant it didn't switch to Daylight Savings time in Spring. So rather than getting up at 5.45 to be there by 6.30, we got up at 4.45 & were there by 5.30. We waited & waited, worried that we had missed everyone. We didn't catch on until about 6.15 when Moe checked the guide book for time zone info. So lesson learned, never trust the pilot.

This was a cost-shared expedition, which meant it's a minimum of 2 people & if more people take the same expedition, then the price goes down. We pre-booked, but they didn't even have our reservation when we showed up. But it didn't matter because plenty of people just showed up the day before to make the reservation & put down their deposit. http://www.saharaexpe.ma/

Departing at 7 am, the driver took us & four others up & over the Atlas mountains. We stopped in a couple of Kasbahs to get away from the tourists ... but then again, they were providing a service to these more remote kasbahs that were set up ready to receive the tourists.

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on to sahara
Along the way, they took us to two kasbahs. This one is significantly smaller than the one we stopped at for lunch. Once we arrived, local children were on the standby ready to guide us into their village ... & likely to their parents' shops for us to buy crap.
 
Mountain side homes that simply blend right in. We wondered what life would be like living there.

All along the way, we had car trouble. The bloody thing kept overheating was we trekked up the mountain. There were three other vanloads of tourists, but we were always stuck behind because of the frequent stops.

Eventually the bloody thing gave out, we had to wait for another van (already filled with day trippers) to double back & pick us up. Then all 15 of us, squeezed into an 8-passenger van continued onwards. It was lovely.

Despite the long car journey, this was also a wonderful way of seeing more of this country.
   
  Early evening, we arrived to a town where camels awaited us. & for the next 1.5 to 2 hours, we rode on camel back out to two tents in the desert where Berbers greeted us. A meal was prepared & we were left to enjoy the stars or simply crash. The night sky out there is just beautiful!! Camel back riding is something you don't forget. It didn't feel too commercial, so we felt that our money was going back into the community. It was also nice to get a chance to see another bit of the country since our stay was so short & we didn't hire our own car.
Finally we arrived at the end of the road, where a pack of camels were waiting for us. It was time for our 1.5 hours camel ride into the desert.
Unfortunately we could not capture the images of the night sky. Stars were so plentiful, the moon (only half full) was so brilliantly bright to show our guides the way to camp.

We soon learned how far our 2000 Dirham went. Our tourist money stretched from the city of Marrakech, to the shop keepers & merchants in the rural kasbahs, & finally to the Berbers - a small ethnic population.

It was nice to know that the money was being spread around. That said, by the end, it felt too much like we were prized little goodies to be handed over to the various local vultures for their share of the picking.

These statements sound very contradictory, & they are.

The process was giving the rural areas a chance at the tourism money, & not just concentrating it in the big city. But as a tourist getting picked over, you get very of being picked on by the end. We cannot say we didn't fall prey to some of the more witty & skilled traders. Oh well, we contributed to the economy.
  When we arrived it was just in time for dinner ... Chicken tagine, bread, & Berber whiskey (i.e. mint tea).
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