Breakfast in the Sahara Desert
Over recent post on this site, I have shared photos taken on our visit to Morocco several years ago now. As an aside, I am enjoying looking at the photos taken on that trip and selecting appropriate shots to share here. There is nothing like a few trips down memory lane.
In my most recent posts, I have written about our camel ride into the Sahara Desert and our stay overnight in a Berber tent right out in the desert. We returned, again riding camels, to the hotel shown in today’s photos in time for a late breakfast. This just happened to be on Christmas Day; it is a celebration of this important day that we will never forget. It was so different, for we normally would attend church, followed by a family get-together for lunch and/or dinner.
Just like all of our meals in Morocco, this was delicious. They certainly know how to put on a good feast for tourists in the places we stayed. Along the way, we also had some great meals in restaurants and other food outlets, especially for lunch. While I occasionally ordered the types of food we enjoy here in Australia, I was also adventurous and ordered more Moroccan style food. Tasting the local foods is one of the delights of travelling overseas, and visiting a totally different culture is inspiring. Even though I am not normally very adventurous when eating out here in Australia, I was determined to be different when touring. I really enjoyed this aspect of our time in Morocco – and then in Spain, but more of that in later posts.
Dawn over the Sahara
On our tour of Morocco we had the privilege of experiencing dawn over the Sahara Desert. On the previous evening we had taken a camel ride into the desert. I have written about that in recent posts here. We had a delicious dinner of lamb and vegetables cooked in tagines for Christmas Eve, all consumed around a roaring camp fire. It gets cold in the Moroccan desert at night in December.
Later we slept in a Berber tent but we were woken by our guide well before dawn on Christmas Day. We slogged our way to the top of a nearby sand dune to witness sunrise over the desert. It was an amazing experience. The photo above shows the rising sun over towards the Algerian border about 30 km away. Our guide said that the border there was in dispute and this was about as close as we could safely go on our tour.
The photo immediately below shows some of our tour group watching and photographing the rising sun and the desert. The photos below that show some of the desert plant life, set against the colourful sand.
There was only one downside to this day; sand in our shoes!
Plenty of it, too.
I suspect some even made it through Spain and home to Australia.
Go to my archives to read more about our trip.
Into the Sahara desert in Morocco
In recent weeks I have been sharing photos and writing about our tour of Morocco a few years ago.
In my last post here I wrote about our camel ride into the Sahara. This occurred just before sunset and so the colours of the desert sands were stunning. It certainly made up for the discomfort of riding a camel. It was not only uncomfortable – it was very hard to take good photos while constantly on the move.
Who was the not-so-bright spark who thought that riding a camel was a good idea?
Our destination after about an hour of painful riding was a group of Berber tents near a little oasis. After a delicious meal eaten around a camp fire we slept in these tents for only one night. During the night we had a visitor. It seems that most of the touring group had a cat visit them in their tent overnight.
This experience just happened to be on Christmas Eve. It was certainly different and one to remember.