Freezing in the Sahara- Morocco part 5

We spent a night in the Sahara.
As my sister pointed out, that sounds a lot warmer than it was. We FROZE! More on that in a minute. First we had to leave Fes and travel for about 10 hours to get to the Sahara.

On the way to Merzouga, which is on the edge of the Sahara Desert and where a lot of desert camel rides and camping takes place, we passed through high mountains and what looked like southern Utah.  I guess the high mountains could have been Utah too. But these high mountains have monkeys and I've never seen monkeys in Utah.

We stopped for a picnic type lunch at a little hotel along the way. We bought our drinks there, but we had bought our food the night before at a grocery store-- WHICH REMINDS ME!!!! I totally forgot to tell you this part.

**side note/back track** So, the night before we stopped at a grocery store to grab food for our long journey and for the picnic lunch after we had spent the day in the medina in Fes. While wondering the grocery store and grabbing bottles of water I saw three high school age girls walk past me. I don't remember if I said hi or smiled or anything, but one of the girls came back and walked up to me and introduced herself. Clearly, her friends were shy and hanging back a little bit. I talked to her and asked her if she was studying English, which she said she was. Her English was pretty good. I was able to get her friends to talk just a little. She's 17 and in high school. I introduced her and her friends to my sister, who had found me and was wondering why I was talking to these girls. She asked me for my Facebook info, I gave it to her, and now we're FB friends. :) You know what else? This isn't the first time that has happened to me. I must give off an approachable vibe or something. Almost three years ago I met a nice young man in Amritsar, India at the Golden Temple. He was talking to tourists to help practice English before he had to take a test. He asked for my Facebook info and we're still friends. He's living in Australia or New Zealand now. I just think it's so clever and brave of them to find tourists and practice like that. Good for them!

Ok... where was I? Southern Utah... oh yeah. So we got to the "hotel", which is the starting point for the camel ride into the desert, right at sunset. As a photographer, that totally made my day. We had amazing lighting for our hour long camel ride to the tents.

We had dinner and a campfire. There was another family- Americans living in Hong Kong- at our camp site. I think the guides at the camp thought we were boring, but the truth is we were just too freaking cold to really want to do anything. We sat by the fire (which did NOT produce much heat) wrapped in heavy wool blankets until we finally gave up and went to bed. A good nights sleep wasn't really on the agenda for the night. This was all just about surviving and making it to morning without freezing. We woke up before sunrise so we could ride the camels out and watch the sunrise. It was beautiful and amazing and wonderful. :)

Fluffy monkey! I've only seen monkeys in tropical climates.
It was weird to see them in the snow.  

A scenic point we stopped to take picture at along the way. 

I don't know why there was a triceratops in front of the hotel we had our picnic at. 

Our pretty little picnic spot. 

Southern Utah-- am I right?

Funny cookie with a face on it. 

Another scenic photo spot. 

Sand fences-- keep the sand from drifting on the road. 

Just random pics out the bus window to show a town we drove through. 

Apparently ALL the streets in this town are steep hills.
That was totally not my drunken photo skills (not really because I don't drink)

That last comment was total sarcasm, but seriously, what was my problem?
I may need a level on my camera. 

CAMELS! 

This is right where the hotel was.
They had a lot of rain and flooding a month earlier, that's why they had water around the hotel. 

OUR camels. 

I took lots of shadow pics. :) 

Sunset. 

The three very tiny dots you see on top of that hill are people. 

Our campsite. 

Our tent. 

What we survived the night on/under.

The toilets. We were led to believe it would be super basic but...

they were actually pretty decent. Even had solar for light. 

Warming up the drums by the fire. 

Singing for us. 

Early the next morning. 

Sunrise. I love this shot and the camel watching the sun. :) 

That's the hotel in the distance. 

They let the camels roam around after we get back in the morning.
That made me and April happy.