An Irishman, a Canadian and an Italian went into the desert...

On our first day in Marrakech, we met Cindy (from Canada), Phil (from Ireland, like), and Paolo (from Italy). We decided to head into the desert together, so we booked a trip and at 7am the next morning were sitting in a mini-bus along with Rob (from England), heading South-East towards the Sahara.

We started our adventure by crossing the Atlas mountains into Ait-Benhaddou - a tiny town with an ancient Kasbah, about 2 hours from Marrakech. The Kasbah here dates from the 6th century, and was used as the backdrop for scenes in Gladiator. The entire structure is made from mud and straw.



From there, we continued to Ouarzazate for lunch, and then to The Valley of Roses, through the Dades Gorge, and stopped in Boumain du Dades for the night. The hotel we stayed in was inside the gorge, on the edge of a river. There wasn't much else nearby, but the place was amazing.

The next day started with honey crepes (such a yummy breakfast!), and then a trip through the Oasis at Tinghir. The Oasis is used by locals from nearby villages to grow crops.



The afternoon of the second day took us towards the Sahara, through both a short rain shower (in the desert?!!!) and a genuine sandstorm! In Erg Chebbi, only 35kms from the border of Algeria, we met our Berber guides. They gave us our camels, and we rode for 2hrs into the Sahara desert to the campsite where we stayed the night, surrounded by nothing but sand dunes and stars.





It was an amazing trip, and a definite highlight of our whole adventure so far.