White Sun of the Desert Merzouga Morocco

White Sun of the Desert – Merzouga, Morocco

Every trip I take has a main goal, a place I want to go to the most, a place I expect great emotions from beforehand. This time it was the desert. I dreamed of seeing golden orange dunes and breathing in the dry air of the Sahara.

My beloved country has so many wonderful places in a small area–the ocean, the mountains, and the desert.

And even though much of the desert is dry, cracked soil,

and the sand dunes, which are called ergs, are only a small part of it, you can still get high from having been in a real, unique, the largest desert in the world.

In Morocco, you can see barchans near 2 places, Zagora and Merzouga. But Zagora is more difficult, and in Merzouga the sands begin just outside the village. Erg near Merzouga is called Erg Chebbi

And so I took a bus from Tingir to Merzuga. The bus was late. It’s a five-hour trip. There were a lot of people, there were the ubiquitous Chinese. When it got dark and the stars came on, I sat on the two seats facing the window, put on my headphones and music in my ears and drove to my dream, admiring the huge bright African stars outside the window.

Instead of 9 p.m. we arrived at 10 p.m. A caring friend of Munir’s in Tingira called the hotel to report the bus was late. The owner promised to meet us. By the way, many tourists got off the bus in the village of Hassilabied – there is also Erg-Shebbi nearby.

And met me and another girl, Natalie from Australia. We were then put in the same 2-bed room, even though we had beds booked in a shared room. As we walked from the bus stop to the hotel, I literally could not take my eyes off the black night sky, studded with stars the size of my fist – I have not seen such bright and big even in the mountains at an altitude of more than three thousand meters. Amazing and unforgettable show!

At AUBERGE CHEZ JULIA hotel our host immediately treated us to mint tea and began to offer us camel tours to the desert. A daily tour with overnight stay and meals cost 550 Dh (55 euros). Very persistently so he offered, but I managed to refuse. I can go for a walk in the sands myself – no guide there, I do not like camels – not the most convenient mode of transport, and accommodation I have paid here – why he idle for nothing. Natalie agreed to the tour.