This Desert Life

The nearby cedar forests of Azrou are famous for their Barbary macaques. We do a U-turn at the main car park as soon as we arrive, it looks little more than a circus. Everyone will tell you to be careful of the macaques but they seemed better behaved than the visitors who are treating the animals like toys.

Driving through the forest we find a quieter spot with some macaques. Vendors immediately appear trying to sell us peanuts and bananas and random tourist tat. They’re a bit more persistent than we’ve experienced previously but they eventually give up. It might be quieter than the main car parks but there are still other visitors here and the behavior hasn’t improved. We take a couple of photos from a respectful distance and leave.

We are now in the Middle Atlas mountains. Our poor little van is not renowned for its climbing abilities so it is with some trepidation that we continue the climb higher. The landscape is already becoming more barren, rocky and dusty. We can see snow high in the mountains.

Up, up, up we go, one eye on the winding road, the other on the temperature gauges. The trick with these vans is to keep the revs up, put the heater on and open the windows. 2800rpm seems to be the sweet spot, and I take the gearbox out of drive and lock it in first. We’ve resorted to low range in the past, but the air temperature is cool enough here that everything is under control.

We stop for lunch by a lake, 2000m above sea level. There are some Swiss vans here that we crossed paths with near Azrou so we chat with them a while. A local turns up, welcomes us to Morocco and gives us bananas. There’s a hike around the lake, but the lake shore is littered with broken glass. Why? I just don’t understand it. We decide to stay put for the night and it’s frigid. Despite the freezing temperature and high elevation the van rumbles into life easily in the morning.

Dropping down through the Ziz valley we follow the river. Oasises become common, big date palm plantations. It’s weird seeing these…well…oasises of green in the otherwise barren landscape. We cross paths with the Swiss again at the beautifully located Jurassic Hotel and Camping but I think our paths will diverge now.

We want to see Erg Chebbi. We try a little light off-road but it is clear the HiAce is not going to cut it as a desert rat. We don’t have the ground clearance, nor do we have any underbody protection.

At a campsite near Merzouga a guide tells us he can get our van out to Erg Chebbi, shows pictures of similar vehicles out there and so we book onto a guided trip. It’s a sensible option if we’re going to do this, given I have no experience on sand and I’m still not convinced of the van’s abilities.

For something so empty, the desert is captivatingly beautiful. Except, it’s not empty of course. There are the oasis, sporadic trees, camels, desert camps and communities. We stop to reduce tyre pressure and children appear from holes in the sand. At least, I can find no other explanation as to where there came from, they weren’t there a minute ago.

It’s hard to imagine the Sahara being underwater, but fossils of undersea creatures are abundant. We pick up a few as souvenirs and the guide gives us more. We make it to the Erg, but as will all tours, don’t get to spend the time we want there. We resolve to return in a more suitable vehicle one day.

Not far from our campsite is a large geological feature, which goes by many identities. Some think it’s a volcano, but it’s not, just rock and erosion. It’s been used as a fort and as a prison and even had a bit part in the James Bond film Spectre. We take the dusty corrugated track out to it and stop for lunch while pondering its history. North of here are some big art installations but we decide to leave those for another day and continue west.

What he wants, is to take us to his garage. I tell him the van is running fine, but he says he just wants to give us a business card. Again, we agree. The van really is running fine (to my continued amazement) but it’s thirty years old and you never know when you’ll need a garage.

We’ve found the off-road limits of Godzuki! so park him up and hire a guide with a Land Cruiser to take us out into Erg Chegaga. It’s Valentine day and while not normally being this romantic, we have a night in a Berber camp and a dusk camel ride booked.

The drive out shows us what a proper 4×4 can do and Godzuki!’s days are looking numbered. The desert is surprisingly green. Recent rains have bought it to life, long dormant shrubs and rocket have become abundant. We see Gazelle and and an Ostrich, rare animal sightings in a country where there is plenty of bird life but not much else (I’m not counting dogs, cats and camels as wild!).

The sand dunes come alive as the sun sets, colours dance and merge, and shadows shift, creating a stunningly beautiful and ever changing vista. In the romantic twilight a camel develops an interest in Rosana although it stops short of buying her flowers and a card. She eventually manages to fend off its attentions and I eventually manage to stop laughing.