Leah of Arabia in the Sahara

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

An amazing day.  We began our day at the medieval walled city of Rissani where we learned about Kasbahs.  These are self-contained tribal homes containing many related families.  In Rissani there is one after the other after the other, a few hundred yards apart from each other.  Here’s our guide Ali (a Berber) leading us to the entrance of one.

Inside there’s a great resemblance to the SW USA, and the construction of the older Kasbahs is of adobe:

When the family expands due to marriage, the bride goes to live with the husband’s family and a new portion is added.  These days it is built of cement and rebar:

The Kasbah of the governor contains a mosque:

We visited the mausoleum of Moulay Ali Sherif, the father of the Karan and Alouite dynastys.  We then walked through the fields between the Kasbahs, and wound up at the town market, some of which is open every day and some of which is weekly.  Here’s the donkey parking lot outside the market.  The sounds of many braying donkeys is unforgettable.  Leah is practicing the sound and has it down!

Here’s the weekly goat and sheep market:

One of the fruit and vegetable markets:

One of the spice markets with some totally covered women shopping.  Some leave just one eye exposed:

Ali is a Tuareg, of the “Blue Men” who are Berbers who were nomadic and also were the hired guns who protected the camel caravans which crossed the Sahara.  We visited his home and were served tea in an elaborate ceremony which rivals the Japanese tea ceremony for complexity.  Note that the tea is made over a charcoal fire which is blown with a bellows, charcoal supposedly giving a different (and better) character to the tea than a modern propane flame:

After lunch we began our trip deep into the Sahara to get to the astonishing sand dunes.  These, the largest in the world, stretch over 35 km. long and 9 km. wide, and are known as the Erg Chebbi.  We drove about 45 miles into the rocky Sahara in a Toyota Land Cruiser; there were no roads but lots of vehicle tracks:

Ultimately we approached the dunes which looked like mountains:

The weather was chilly and windy as we came to our camels which would take us up onto the dunes and then to our tents:

We formed a mini-caraavan:

As we got to the top of one of the large dunes, our camel driver pulled out a snowboard:

And down she went, three times!:

As sunset came we were led to our tent:

By now the temperature was 48 degrees and the wind was blowing.  We put on our warmest clothes and went to dinner:

The local Berbers serenaded us in front of a fire with song accompanied by drums.  Leah was taught how to be a part of the group:

Finally at 8:30 we went to our tent.  My travel clock has a thermometer, and as we went to sleep to a spooky Edgar Allen Poe story on my iPhone, it registered 49 degrees inside the tent.  That’s cold.  This is being written on Wednesday, and when we awoke it was 45 in the tent.  FROZEN.  More later.