Diary Entry II; A 2 night-3 day experience in the Sahara featuring Morocco Expert Tours.

Bonjour b*tches, Sahara edition.

(Fun fact: Although the main spoken language in Morocco is Arabic, the second unofficial language is French. Since Arabic causes my writing to be typed the other way round, I welcomed you in French. #SorryNotSorry)

This post is dedicated to my 2 night-3 day hectic experience in the Sahara, featuring my lovely collaboration with Morocco Expert Tours.

Morocco is super Instagrammable. With colourful buildings and doors to pose next to, to literally a sea of orange sand to frolic in. I’m just kidding, I’m not that shallow. Morocco is bursting with history and culture (e.g. 70% of the population are Berbers and it’s one of the world’s largest producers of illicit hashish – yes, I went with that fact). Its natural ambience and architecture gives you the feeling that you’ve time-traveled to another era. I personally felt like I was starring in Aladdin, but I’ll try to not be as basic and base my views on Jasmines P.O.V.

Morocco Expert Tours

So, being a SM addict who saw all kinds of pretty pictures of people in the Sahara desert, as well as having a keen interest in exploring all corners of this planet earth, I was dying to get on a camel and roam the sands of the Sahara.

However, one little problem. I had a total of 5 days and nights in Morocco, and being a stubborn S.O.B., I wanted three full days in Marrakech. Have in mind that the Sahara desert (and I’m talking about the big sand dunes part) is a good 9-10h drive from the airport and consequently almost no one, or no tour agency, had the offer of a 2 night-3 day tour starting from the airport all the way to the desert and back. And that’s where Morocco Expert Tours came to my rescue.

I contacted Youssef, the real MVP, and he helped make my trip fit for my needs, so he made a special package for me. #Blessed.

So we embarked upon our adventure to the desert, at 10 am, right after my BFF and I landed in Marrakech airport. Two lovely guides, Hassan and Mustafa, showed us all that Morocco had to offer.

The Sahara Tour

I’m going to cut to the chase and show pictures rather than yappity yap yap my way through my experience.

Then we finally arrived at our first overnight stay at the lovely Xaluca Dades Hotel. A beautifully decorated hotel with ancient Arabian/African vibes and endless panoramic views of the Dades Valley.

The next day we continued our adventure towards Merzouga and the desert, but had a few other stops on the way:

And finally, the moment I’d been waiting for. The whole ‘mounting the camel’ sitch. 

Glamping; Desert Camp Bouchedor

We ventured on our adventure to the camp where Morocco Expert Tours organised a lovely, luxury tent in the middle of the desert called Desert Camp Bouchedor. And boy did they not kid about the whole luxury-in-the-middle-of-f*cking-nowhere thing (more below).

We got on our camels and “camelled” our way there and let me tell you this folks; a camel ride is not comfortable AT ALL.

Especially when theres a surprise f*cking sand storm that comes out of nowhere. Fun fact: sandstorms are pretty common in the Sahara desert, and while they won’t kill you, they can annoy the sh*t out of you. 

So what seemed like half the Sahara sand in my ear later, we finally arrived at this beauty.

We were taken to our room which was a legit f*cking room in the middle of nowhere – can’t stress that enough.  Electricity, shower, soap are all provided! I know that many people lean towards the more adventurous type of backpacking, sleeping in tents and camping, but for some of us, that just won’t cut it. 

So yeah, a normal bed is provided, and all necessary amenities to enjoy the Sahara desert whilst not… feeling like being in the middle of the Sahara desert. 

We unfortunately did not get the chance to watch the sunset. Thanks sandstorm. However, that didn’t stop me from making the most of it!

Sunrise

The night was beautiful. We had traditional Moroccan food prepared by the Bedouins, were taught how to play traditional music and spent the night stargazing as one rarely has the chance to see such a mesmerising thing. We then went to bed where I hardly got any shut eye (oh, yeah, it gets SUPER warm in there) and then the 5 AM wake up call.

And what a wake up call that was. Words cannot describe the serenity I felt in that moment. The beauty of watching the sun slowly rise from the sand and reflect its beautiful yellow rays on the never ending orange space was above all mesmerising.

And i’m not even a cheesy SOB.

Finally, the heading back to civilisation. Ten hours later we arrived in Marrakech.

Adios Bitchachos

So folks, to conclude with, if you’re a compressed traveler like me who wants to do everything but also wants to be on the go like non-stop cause we’re Millennials and we constantly think that we’re running out of time, want to visit Morocco/the Sahara desert – and are also looking for a tour guide who’ll modify the trip to fit your every annoying need then I would redirect you to this travel agency – Morocco Expert Tours.

If you’d like, you could also mention that you’d want Evie’s planned trip for the same hectic experience!

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it!

To read more on Africa, click here!

-VB x