Our glamp site while in the Sahara Desert October 2018
About a year ago I bumped Morocco up on my bucket list. I first wanted to visit years ago when my brother used to speak so highly of the country, but life happened and I forgot I even had a bucket list, let alone that Morocco was ever on it. Then recently I saw someone post online about their visit, and I was triggered to finally get serious about going.
But who would dare want to go with me?
I did some research and found that if I wanted to visit the Sahara Desert while in Morocco I would most likely get there by camel. Given that the Sahara Desert is about the size of the United States, it can take quite a trek to get beyond just crossing the border. After approximately 2 hours on a camel is when you can finally reach what’s considered as civilization, or a luxury camp site. Then of course after all that trekking you have no choice but to stay the night. In a tent. In the middle of miles and miles of desert.
Whoa, hold up. NONE of this sounds like me. But the smooth look of that sand was calling my name. I’m a sand collector by the way. And it looks like the smoothest sand on earth. And camels are so cute. But the tent thing? Oh Lawd, I don’t know about this. And then I made the acquaintance of Abdou. He’s a native Moroccan who told me about this luxurious camp site, which is considered glamping in the Sahara Desert. Glamping, glamorous camping. Beautiful Moroccan rugs, actual beds, even hot and cold water. Hmm, I can get with that. And since it’s only going to be one night in a tent with beds and good food, yes, I can do this.
So I posted some info and all of a sudden a whole bunch of ladies started signing up. I was really surprised. Who knew black women wanted to ride a camel into the Sahara Desert AND stay all night out there in the middle of absolutely no modern civilization for miles, and IN A TENT?
But there was one little lady who took some convincing. My 13 year old. I’m guessing she can’t imagine being without wifi for that long, and not having her Sephora goodies to play in. Wait, no flat irons either? She was NOT feeling this. So I decided to find a local Moroccan restaurant, because this girl can always, always be bribed with food.
It worked. Couscous, lamb, mint tea. She fell immediately in love and is now ready to go.
So we’re going. All 16 or more of us. We’ll stop in Barcelona, Spain along the way, as it’s a really cheap flight to get from Spain to Morocco. So we might as well enjoy a pit stop in Barcelona, just long enough to enjoy authentic tapas and sangria then get a good night of sleep. The next day we will fly to Marrakech where we will stay for 3 days. Our tour guide will show us what Marrakech has to offer and our stay at an authentic Moroccan riad will give us a chance to enjoy some real Moroccan food and hospitality.
Next we will continue our 3 day trek across the desert. Fortunately only one of those days will be by camel, and like I said, one night in a TENT. I’ve not done anything remotely like camping since I was a child. This is going to be interesting.
We’ll spend our last 3 nights in the city of Fez in a luxury riad. This is where I’ll get my chance to spend some time with a Moroccan chef and learn some dishes I can bring back home to cook for this foodie child of mine.
I’m beyond excited. Have you been to Morocco? Or have you been glamping? Since I haven’t done either I’d love to know about your experience. If you’ve done either, tell me about it in the comments below. If you’d like to join us we’d love to have you! Click here for info.
