The alarm was set for 5:45am. The haunting nasal sound of the Islamic call to prayers started up just before the alarm went off. We ignored both for an extra 20 minutes. Then we got up, packed our suitcases, and took them downstairs to the lobby. Breakfast was happening. Orange juice, pastries, yogurt, and (very bad) coffee. A couple of little triangles of ‘cow’ brand cheese wrapped in foil in our pockets – ‘for the road’.

At 7:00am we were on the bus – ALL of us—including yesterday’s antagonists, who ending up sitting side by side in the first row! How long is this going to work?? (Amazingly, the truce held for the entire day!) It was going to be a long hard day of travel, at least 7 hours, sitting scrunched up in the back of the bus as we made our way from Fès down to Merzouga, near the Algerian border. I was wearing shorts because the midday temperature was supposed to hit 27 degrees, but it was a little too cool for my liking at 7:00am.

We stopped for our first WC and coffee break and I hauled out my little box of peanut butter ‘biscuits’ to share with everyone in the group. Dave bought us all coffees, ‘real’ and delicious coffees. Then back on the bus and on we go. We made a couple of stops to take in the sights as the surroundings changed. A very fine highway took us through cedar and pine forests, then over the snow-covered Middle Atlas Mountains. We stopped for lunch at a big roadside restaurant. Pasta for me, a Moroccan ‘taco’ for Naomi. We continued on after lunch. We stopped to take in the view of some deep gorges filled with green palm groves. At around 5:30, with the sun beginning its descent in the west, we turned off the main highway and followed a long sandy ‘driveway’ into the marvelous orange-coloured dunes of the Sahara Desert. We had arrived in the little village of Merzouga.

In front of us was an amazing ‘fortress’. Our bus backed up to the big gate and our driver began to unload the luggage. This ‘auberge’ would be our home for the next two nights. We made our way past a large pool in the middle of a courtyard that was surrounded by hotel rooms. We got the key to our room from the front desk, then went looking for room #70. We found it in another even larger courtyard, with an even bigger swimming pool in the centre of it. The rooms surrounding this courtyard were huge! Private bathrooms, too! And a back door that opened up to our own big patio – and an absolutely stunning view of those big beautiful sand dunes, literally in our backyard!

Naomi went for a long walk out on the dunes while I checked out the lobby. Dave and Michael both jumped into the (cold) pool for a little swim. I got myself a delicious Americano coffee. When Naomi got back from her walk, the hotel manager offered to take us upstairs to the roof of the hotel, from where we watched the sunset. Magical views.

After a bit of a rest back in our room it was 7:30, time for dinner. A long table was prepared for us in the dining hall. The hotel would serve us a local-style dinner; first up, a ‘starter’, which was basically a cold macaroni salad with beets, carrots, and rice. Interesting. Then came the ‘included’ main course, a ‘Berber pizza’. Several large ‘pizzas’, stuffed with beef and onion and covered with another pie crust were set on our table. The bottles of Coke were an extra charge. And for dessert? Delicious local oranges and bananas.

After supper a few of us followed our Berber host out into the desert where we sat on chairs and looked up at the night sky. We discussed the stars for a while, and then Naomi and I excused ourselves and headed back to our room. No internet access in our room (and not very good internet in the lobby either), so we both worked on our respective blog posts, typing them up in Word, with intentions to post them tomorrow when the lobby internet is a little faster.

It was a little after ten o’clock, and although we’d basically sat in the van all day, we were tired. Too tired to even start up a movie from my collection of downloaded films.

So it’s off to bed. See you in the morning.