Morocco Day 6: The Sahara Experience Part 1

​Today we spent the day immersed in the many different treasures of the Moroccan Sahara.  

We started out dividing up into groups of four so we could travel in 4-wheel drive land cruisers all day.  We had Omar as our driver.

We started by visiting a fossil shop.  We were expecting dinosaurs, but ended up learning a lot about ammonites and other creatures from 350,000 years ago.  We got a tour of a huge variety of different kind of fossils that have been discovered in the mountains nearby.  Having visited National Parks in the US where the emphasis is on preserving them for scientific study and education, it was a little hard to get used to the idea of mining them for commercial use. The place we visited cut and polished slabs of stone that they made into tables, sinks, countertops, and decorative art, as well as jewelry, plate, bowls, and a huge number of different smaller objects. 

After the fossils, we went on a tour of the local market in the town of Risanni.  A feature of the tour was seeing the dates that we have been seeing growing by the side of the road.  We also saw local women in their local tribal costume, lots of craftsmen making things from wood and tires, and pyramids of spices.

We spent about half an hour in market, and then headed towards the desert.  On the way we stopped to milk some camels.  As in Mongolia, the herder let the calf nurse for a bit to get the milk flowing. We had fun petting the wound ones, and then went inside to try the still warm milk.  

Back in the Toyotas, we headed across a very bleak and unpopulated area to reach an oasis where dates are farmed.  We learned a bit about the irrigation system, both getting the water from the well to the farm plots, as well as the mud used to open and close irrigation channels.  We saw a lot of dates palms, both old and new, as well as other trees and field crops.  Then back to the cars and the air conditioning.

For lunch, we went to a cool place that served “Berber Pizza” - which is basically a large pita bread stuffed with curry.  It was very yummy, although we had to pick out the onions.  The room was decorated with an amazing array of woven baskets, many of which resembles the baskets we got in Agadez when Ruth visited Niger in 1989.

More in Part 2