To the cold, wet Sahara

Last week we headed down to the Sahara with Ron's family, their coworkers and families, and their friends from the States.

First we went over the Middle Atlas Mountain pass - about an hour from Ifrane.

Then we saw the High Atlas Mountains up close and with snow for the first time since arriving in Morocco. The highest mountain in this section is over 12,000 feet. The entire 7-hour drive to the desert is an incredible series of forests, mountains, plateaus, oases, gorges and finally - desert.

Along the way we also passed two peaceful demonstrations about the situation in Gaza. I found myself tensing up when we got close because of my memories of violent demonstrations in Pakistan, but both groups were very calm. We heard the same from friends about demonstrations in other parts of the country.

Most of our time there was spent in studies and worship times in a hotel near the desert with a wonderful group of people. Although their temperatures are higher than here in the mountains, it actually felt colder there because they do not have good heat like we do and because their ceilings are 20 feet high. We spent most of the days wearing long underwear, turtle necks and jackets while the sun refused to shine. The second day we went for a camel ride in the only classic dunes Morocco has (much of Morocco is desert, but there is only one small area of these kind of dunes and the camels that go with them). Believe it or not - it was freezing cold and pouring down rain. Lucky us - one of the only days it rains in the Sahara and we were there! I hardly got any pictures because my hands were too cold and wet to hold the camera and I was afraid I'd drop it from the top of my camel. The ride was still fun, but it was the hour drive back to the hotel in the dark over barely visible desert roads with pouring rain, and threatening floods that got the misery prize. But thankfully we made it back safely, wetly and sandily. Pictured is our group.

The happy ending is that the third day, the sun did finally come out! Sitting on top of the dunes in the warmish sun soaking up every ray I could get after a cloudy, rainy, snowy fall was a highlight of the time for me!

This is out of order - but here is a classic South Moroccan Kasbah (fortified palace) that you see all along the route - this one in the Ziz Valley Gorge.

What better to do in the dunes than to jump long distances into soft sand?

Sahara-style bread - the oven for the hotel

The visiting team from the States did all kinds of activities with the kids and also brought lots of goodies which we all enjoyed - a bit too much!

Then it was back to Ifrane. It was fun to go and it's good to be back.