Getting our asses kicked in the desert

26.11.2010 | comments [0]

Morocco is  a beautiful and geographically very diverse country that enables you to do a huge variety of sports. We were all packed in our old VW with surfboards for the Atlantic coast, climbing gear and BASE rigs for the steep High Atlas walls, but first we wanted to have some fun - sand boarding on the beautiful Erg Chebbi dunes, so we headed down to Merzouga.
 Merzouga is situated in southeastern Morocco just over 3100km drive from Slovenia and holds one of two Saharan ergs in the northwest African nation. The dunes are formed by a wind-blowing sand and reach up to 150 meters high, which makes it a perfect place for those eager to do some sand skiing or  just  watching the amazing sunsets that colour the dunes orange and red. The locals believe that these dunes were sent as punishment for turning away a weary traveler from the desert. They say that shortly thereafter, the gods made the dunes pile up outside their town as a lesson never to send away another needy wanderer.
Well I guess they have learned their lesson. Shortly after we parked our car at the edge of the dunes the whole village was there, some a bit more shy just observing from the distance, some coming closer already inviting us for tagine (most common Moroccan food) and showing us to the well with fresh drinking watter. Our dog was the centre of attraction chasing the local kids (and some adults) around as we  were packing our things for camping in the desert. This time we decided not to get blisters on our behinds from riding the camels and just explore the dunes by ourselves, so we were quite heavily loaded as we took off to the dessert. The main thing was to pick some wood for a cosy fire in front of our tent in the night.
 After walking for about  an hour and a half we all started to miss the camels a bit, the wind was getting stronger and stronger, so we decided to set up the camp in a small valley between two dunes. By the time we put the tent up the wind was so strong  we had to bury half of the tent in the send so it did not get blown away.  Everything was set and finally we were ready to hit the dunes with our boards.
Naturally we tried to get to the longest and steepest slope, but the walking part is somehow even more more exhausting than walking in deep snow. We were making two steps forward and one step back. Combined with the heavy wind factor we decided to leave the highest peak for the next day and have some fun on the closer slopes. The sand boarding does not get to the same speed we are used to on the snow, but it does provide a nice slow motion boarding in an interesting environment, for us even in extreme conditions with the sand trying to get to absolutely all the holes on our bodies. We all looked like Tuaregs very quickly trying to protect from it. Short pants are definitely not a good idea as you feel the sand like a million mosquitoes trying to eat your thighs.  It is also quite amazing how the soft  sand gets as hard as concrete when you fall down on it with some speed...
 So we were running up and down having a great time, already talking about making a jump from the woods we brought for the fire, when it started to get dark. We looked around surprised, as we did not think it has been that late already and we saw a huge black wall coming toward us. Speechless for a few seconds we quickly decided to get back to our tent, pack the gear and get the hell out of there. The way back to the car was quite interesting as the strong wind was blowing towards us, pushing us back to the desert, the sand was all around us and the visibility was almost down to zero. We were quite happy to get to the car, packed all the gear and the dog inside, pulled the car out of the sand in all together about 3 minutes and just drove as far away as we could...
That was it with the sand boarding expedition, but heading towards the High Atlas,  we had many more things to look forward to even if the desert has chewed and spit us out....better luck next time!
 

by Petra Brajnik