Finally, I wake up feeling human. I’m still fatigued and suffering hot/cold chills, but I’m good enough to climb a couple pitches. Barry offers to give me a belay at the crag behind the hotel, so I shimmy my way up the red limestone. The texture is awesome, it’s sharp and scraggly. It reminded me of the rock up at Mt. Charleston, NV.
I climbed a 5.6 extremely runout pitch to warm up, it only had 4 bolts for the whole pitch. But, the climbing was so easy, I was not worried.
The second climb was a 5.7, and I think there were only 3 bolts on it.
The third one was a dihedral, probably 5.8, and it was my favorite. After doing the third climb, I was starting to feel sick again, so we headed over to the cafe for some juice and a light snack.
Ibrahim came to pick us up at around 11:30am, to take us to the dunes at the gates of the Sahara, just outside of Merzouga. He had graciously arranged for us to have a camel ride, and sleep overnight in Berber tents. We were very excited to be having this experience, but a little nervous about the camel ride as our bums were all sore from the horrible flu like symptoms we’d suffered.
We stopped along the way to take a tour of a Stone Cutting Factory. Apparently, in this part of Morocco, they are known for their work carving Marble, and other slabs of stone. There are fossils in the stone, prehistoric squid and trilobytes, among other things.
After the factory tour, we drove another hour, into the desert. Ibrahim got to show off some more of his 4wd skills, driving on the sand in the desert. Right about the time we arrived for the camel ride, the sky started to darken.
It was dramatic, cruising in the desert on camels, with the display of lightning and thunder all around.
We made it to the Berber tents, and unpacked our things. The smell inside the little tents reminded me of a goat shed, very musky and earthy.
They had prepared a special meal of couscous (vegetarian style) for us to nosh on. It was wonderful to be eating in the tent, with the thunderstorm beating down on us. I was a little nervous I’d get wet sleeping at night, but the fabric is amazingly water resistent.
Our Berber tour guide was stung by a scorpion, so I gave him a handful of drugs, some Ibuprofen and also some Benedryl. He took all the Benedryl (4 tablets) and amazingly he was still walking around! His hand was very swollen, and it looked rather painful.
We went to bed early, in preparation for an early morning hike up the largest Dune in the area.
Tags: Berber Tents, Camel Ride, Gates of Sahara, Merzouga