07 May Deserting southbound

Sometimes, when you least expect it, all your sleepless nights are rewarded and heaven sends you an advance. Although, on reflection, I'm not sure if all this has been a gift from Heaven or Divine punishment. And I'm going to explain, the last two groups I have taken to Africa were made up of 17 girls and two friends on the trip to Kenya and Tanzania, and four girls on the Morocco trip...

And there are times when this work is not paid for....

Of these two routes today I wanted to write about the Morocco route, because it is the first route that the Desertando club has done and although it has been almost a month since we returned, it is what I needed to recover and become a person again.

I remember the philosopher Bertrand Russell saying that great personal adventures always have a good dose of drunkenness, so that passion triumphs over prudence. But beware that this message should not be taken literally, literally, because on this trip we have lacked this in order to set off across the desert in search of the lost oasis of Zerzura.

And I was thinking of a quiet drink, between the dunes of the erg Likhoudi, and then sleep at the belle etoile, I don't know at what point it got out of hand... Fortunately, I have years of training behind me and for me, cold, hunger, sleep and tiredness are only stimulants.

The fact is that it was not an easy trip, going down to the south of Morocco at Easter and staying off the beaten track with the hordes of tourists and being able to enjoy special places in solitude was a challenge. I have several of these special places, I go there so much and I feel so good in them that I am beginning to consider them my own property.

I can't reveal the secret of its location, because any day I might find it full of Simpsons tourists and I'd be sick. I'll just say that to get there you have to suffer a bit and walk a few kilometres, but as they are all on a route with views like this one of the Telouet track, I assure you that it's worth it.

I have already written about these places so many times..., I like them so much, that any day I'll fix up one of these kasbash, turn it into a rural house and come to live here. I can almost see it, my kitchens would be famous and my creative cuisine envied by the whole Draa Valley, Paul Bocuse would be a poor devil next to me, those camel caravans that connected the Glaoui's house in Telouet with Timbuktu or Kumbia Saleh would pass through here again... well, I'll stop dreaming, I'm getting carried away.

Another of my favourite places is in Tamnougalt, from the terrace of that place you have this view. I don't mind saying the name of the kasr, because once you get there, getting to MY place is very difficult. This is also the best place to hike around Jebej Saghro, one of the hidden gems of southern Morocco.

Further south, near Mhamid, is the village of Bounou, another jewel, which survives despite being half in ruins and devoured by the dunes. It knew better times when the Draa river used to flow through it, before it was swallowed up by the earth, but what is left of the village is a fatal attraction for me. I think it is because of this place that I always insist on coming to the Erg Chegaga and not to the dunes of Merzouga.

In Mhamid the road ends, and the adventure begins, from there you can go to Erg Chegaga or Erg Likhoudi, and beyond them, the temptation is there. I warn you, you spend a night among the dunes, under the stars and your body asks for more, the next morning you want to take the opposite direction from home, you want to go on like this, to continue the adventure.

But what happens the next day depends on who has won the inner battle. If the irresponsible in all of us (some of us less so) has won, then on the other side of the dunes you will find Foum Zguid, and much further south Smara, passing near the oasis of Bir Lehlou and Tifariti, impossible to visit (from Morocco, of course).

If the mental battle has been won by the other self, the responsible one, then you will be on your way back home, but you will still hear a permanent run-run in your head and you will be back, sooner than you think.

Although for me, the noise that has been playing the loudest in my head since then is the laughter of the trip, we didn't have a bad time, no...And with this I leave you, because I have accumulated trips to Algeria and Gabon that I have to show you, and they are going to join me with other projects, so I'll cut and close.