12 Flights 7 Weeks: Merzouga

My next stop was one that I had actually been looking forward to. I had booked myself into a swanky Kasbah in Merzouga. It was actually the only destination that I had planned out for ahead of time.

In order to get to Merzouga I had to take the bus there. It was a 12 hour bus ride. Luckily I was prepared with my manuscript to edit and my journal to update. But damn was it tedious. Not to mention driving through the High Atlas mountains around hairpin turns..

Seriously we just drove that road. But there were some pretty cool things to be seen.

And we drove through the town where they filmed Lawrence of Arabia and Kingdom of Heaven.

And I was horrified to walk into the bathrooms at a rest stop only to find this…

But apparently it’s totally normal. It wouldn’t be my last run in with a Turkish toilet in Morocco.

All in all despite chucking out a whole day for travel it was worth it. 

I was picked up at the bus station by my Kasbah. If you’re looking for a fantastic Kasbah for not a ton of money check out KasbahMohayut. When I checked in I was like could I please have tea in my room, BAM tea in my room! And it was a very swanky room!!

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of the bathroom. The shower was huge! I could stretch my arms out and not touch the sides! And the hot water!!!!

The first thing I did was throw a tiny fit of joy and jumped on the bed, looked out my window then took a shower. I had to throw on this song… 

It just seemed appropriate to rock out too.

It was a comfy night of going to sleep early and cuddling my pillows! 

The next morning I woke up earlyish (and did not make my bed!), after all I wanted to have breakfast! And damn was it a good breakfast. There was bread and jams and French toast and candied nuts and the best part… fresh orange juice!!

Next I walked around the Kasbah because I wanted to see how cool it actually was.

I walked up to the roof terrace and I was looking around…

I spotted some camels…

I was rather unimpressed…

Until holy shit it hit me! 

That was the Sahara desert! Like right there! I silently swooned at the fact that I was legitimately at the edge of the desert!

And even though it was the end of November it was pretty warm and I wanted to swim…. So I did!!

I mean come on I swam at the edge of the Sahara! And speaking of the Sahara the reason I had booked the Kasbah was because you have an option of spending the night in their desert camp and you get to ride a camel out there!! I’ll get to that in the next post. Because I’ll be posting tons of pictures and all sorts of fun shit.

So I spent the night in the desert and then I had to decide where I was going next. I had a warm shower, breakfast with my Canadian friends, then went back for a short nap before check out time.

After checking out I hopped on my phone to try and decide what was up. I had just heard back from a host in Azrou but getting there was going to be a trek and I didn’t want to spend 9 days in Fez and I was getting anxious and worked up so I took a deep breath and calmed down. I decided whatever happened was going to happen. So I called Zak, my host in Azrou and he told me how to get there. I was taking the 8pm bus from Merzouga to Fez but it stopped in Azrou at about 1am. 

Once that was all settled I decided to take a walk about in the dunes because come on I totally needed some kick ass pictures of me being epic in the desert. I found a nice warm spot to do some editing. I was going to journal but it was too damn hot, what did I expect though I was in the Sahara!

I was walking back from the dunes and the owner of the Kasbah was headed back on the four wheeler from the desert camp. He stopped and offered me a ride. It was pretty bad ass to zoom through the dunes!

Then I hung out in the common area where I could get wifi and talk to my parents and swoon over the fact that I had slept in the desert and climbed a dune and got a picture of a shooting star and it was amazing. I also got to hag out and talk to other guests. I met a newly wed couple from Newark, Delaware! And I was so psyched because I hadn’t met any Americans since leaving the states and it’s always a little bit fun to meet an American from a neighbor state while abroad. They were debating about not going to the desert camp and I was like you have to go. Your ass is going to be sore but it’s amazing, not to mention it has a western style bathroom with running water. That sold it to the wife. Then we swapped tips because they were going to Marrakech and I’d just left while they had just left Fez and I’d be there soon.

One last very funny thing about my stay was the fact that well apparently solo travelers in Morocco are rare. And the Kasbah was full of couples! Did I feel lonely? Nah, I had Geronimo. Plus it was really funny to see people’s faces when they’re like who are you here with and I’m like just me!

That night my Kasbah dropped me off at the bus station and had arranged for my ticket which was stellar and so damn easy! And it was time for my next adventure! But before we get to the crazy Azrou adventure it’s the Sahara post!

Just to tease...

Cheers,