Travels with Craig and Jeri: Moroccan Odyssey Day 13

Morocco Day 13: The Sahara

We left Erfoud to head into the desert. We bussed it (ARGH!) to the Macro Fossil Kasbah where we were going to transfer to 4x4's to drive the remainder of our trip to our camp in the Sahara.

Just outside Erfoud, on the road to the Erg Chebbi dunes, is the Macro Fossiles Kasbah, a workshop which combines a museum, fossil workshop, and of course, gift shop. This area is part of the Tafilalet Basin, which was once covered by a prehistoric ocean over 350 million years ago during the Devonian Period.

The term “macro fossils” refers to large, visible fossils—that include: Ammonites (spiral-shelled marine creatures related to squid), Orthoceras (long, conical cephalopods), Trilobites (prehistoric arthropods), and corals, and other marine life that were concentrated into smaller and smaller bodies of water as the sea shrank.These fossils are embedded in black marble and limestone that is quarried and polished for art and decoration.

I was shooting for one of these, but Jeri nixxed the idea, so we had to settle for something we could throw into carry-on.

At the fossil workshop, we boarded 4x4's for our trip into the desert. We began on normal roads

then started delving deeper into the countryside.

We made a stop at a small village to have our first up-close and personal with camels (actually dromedaries, a one-humped version of the classic two-humped camel (two-humpers are Asiatic, one-humpers, African). When I say personal, I mean personal. We actually milked them,

though we had to fight off the camel calf to get to the teat.

My new best friend

After milking (successfully!!), we gave camel milk a try.

Wasn't too bad. Camel milk is slightly saltier and thinner than cow milk, with a faintly earthy or nutty taste. It has health benefits compared to cow's milk that include, lower cholesterol and 1/2 the fat, easier to digest for lactose intolerant people, 10x higher iron, and 3x higher vitamin C. Big problem is getting them on a plane to NH. They really don't like the cold.

We also all bought turbans here and Mo gave a brief demo on how to wrap the turban, Sahara style.

We left the small towns behind and began our trek into the actual desert. Our bus would not have done well. The drive was pretty exciting at times and we felt like we were extras in a Mad Max movie.