Day 8: Auberge Yasmina Camp

This morning we woke up at 5.30am for the rescheduled camel ride for sunset. It was quite the adventure! My camel fell over about five minutes into the ride and luckily I was quick enough to react and managed to jump off in time not to have my leg broken! No one else had trouble though so it was fine. We rode on for about 30 minutes before stopping to take photos of the sunrise. We managed to get some really good pictures of the camel silhouette against the skyline. The ride home was incident free however my roomate’s camel continued to bite mine on the ass for the duration, which our camel handler just laughed off!

After camels we walked straight into breakfast of pancakes and binyets with honey. We then had a short window to change and meet for the 4x4 jeep safari which was a Toyota Pajero and Mitsubishi Outlander drive over the sand dunes.  It was fantastic! We made our way out to a few photo destinations before driving through to the nomad camp. We had green tea and met some locals. After that we drove to the bathroom break and stopped by the Algerian border. We also stopped by a small dance troupe to listen to some drumming and the dual clappy symbol handheld instrument which we had started to see a lot of in Morocco. 

Lunch was back at the hotel, consisting of a lovely hot eggplant ‘salad’ and skewers. 

After lunch we had some free time before the Quad/ATV tours in the sand dunes. The breeze came up and the sand began streaming across the dunes. By this point, visibility was decreasing by the hour as the wind speeds rose.  My roomate and I took some obligatory Instagram photos before the weather became unbearable as the sand whipped across our skin. The only way to describe it is; like being sandblasted. We assumed if the weather didn’t settle that the ATV/quad bikes would be cancelled. At 5pm we decided not to go due to the harsh sand and high winds (the forecast said 65kms/h or more. We stayed in and played cards and spent time with other members of the group. A few members of the group still left for the ATV but upon arriving decided not to participate with about a 50/50 split. Half the group rode around for a short time (just for the experience they said) while the others walked amongst the dunes and took photos. Dinner was chicken tagine and cauliflower gratin.  

Accommodation: Yasmina Desert Camp, Merzouga