The Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains

These past few days have been filled with long and varied journeys from the bustling city of Fes over and through the Atlas Mountains and its valleys and then into and out of the Sahara Desert. The vistas, landscapes, and people we encountered are hard to capture in words. On our long drive south from Fes, we first crossed into the Atlas Mountains, so the scenery changed dramatically and the temperature dropped a good 25 degrees. We stopped for coffee in a ski resort town which could easily have been in Austria or Switzerland and then descended towards the edge of the Sahara desert.

The next day we made our way into the southeast city of Erfoud, where we were surprised to discover a unique archeological find. This region of Morocco is filled with fossils from around 300,000 years ago when this part of the world was covered in water as all the continents were connected. We got to see how one artisan co-op works to preserve and then use the fossils in a variety of crafts.

The next morning we drove into an Amazingh desert camp -- a Berber community with semi-permanent buildings and tents in the Sahara. We were invited into the camp to share a meal and jam session with dancing. We had a demonstration from the community women on how they make "Moroccan stuffed pizza" which was a dough, cooked in a wood-burning fire, stuffed with chicken and vegetables. The local kids had fun giving us a concert and then prodding us to dance with them. Good fun, despite the scorching desert heat.

A couple of hours before sunset, we met our next travel companions: camels! We journeyed 15 minutes into the desert dunes in 4x4 vehicles and then another hour or so on the camels to our desert tent camp. In the quiet and remoteness of the desert, we watched the sunset and then enjoyed an evening of Moroccan cuisine, our travel companions, and a late night fire with music.

After another lovely morning journey on a camel (with more wind and so more sand in our faces), we continued driving through the Atlas mountains, including a walk through the Todra Gorge along a lovely river with hundreds of locals enjoying the cool water and shade from the high cliff walls. We ended this stage of our travel through Morocco with a few days in the Dades Valley -- a beautiful, lush and expansive valley -- where some hiked and others got to experience a local doctor visit.