Day 19: October 19

And so we just kind of kept going little by little.
At first there were only very low sand dunes. It was easy to walk on them. The sand here is a very beautiful orange color, completely unlike what we saw in India in the desert near Jaisalmer. Here it is so fine-fine, like in an hourglass. In the photos, you can see the true color of the sand (it really kept changing all the time depending on the light, but I didn’t tint it at all; the photos are unedited, that’s exactly how it was there)

We walked and walked through this orange blanket. And somehow all distances became distorted; it seemed we were moving very slowly (which was basically true, because after all, walking on sand is not the same as walking on a road). In the distance, the tallest of the dunes loomed and beckoned us toward it. Under the influence of the wind, the sand takes on incredible shapes… It is truly mesmerizing, stunning, and awe-inspiring…

Honestly, I was very skeptical about this trip to the dunes. Everywhere online people wrote that visiting Morocco and not seeing the Sahara is almost a sin. But it seemed to me it would be boring here, with too many tourists.

But in reality, everything turned out to be truly magical. We were completely alone amid this golden sandy sea.

When we approached the high dunes, we had to climb to the top. It turned out not to be very easy. Luckily, someone had gone before us and left footprints. It was much easier to follow them. But then a very steep ascent began, and we were already climbing on all fours.
The sand felt so pleasant to the touch, soft and warm. So climbing over it was even a pleasure. Volchiy was the first to climb to the top of the dune and shouted, “I don’t want to disappoint you, but this is only the beginning.”

And indeed we saw the next dune, even higher, and someone was sitting on its top. And there were footprints along the ridge… We caught our breath a little and went on. To our surprise, we climbed the ridge quickly.

And here we are at the very top. Besides us, there is no one here; only some Moroccan is sitting and gazing into the distance. Down below, a quad bike is driving across the dunes. Beyond the sand dune we climbed, you can see the tents where tourists are brought to spend the night among the sands. It is clear how small this sandy dune is; not far away at all, the sand suddenly ends and the gray stone desert begins.

We sat on top of this dune for a long, long time. We watched tourists being brought in on camels. Then the tourists climbed up the same dune from the other side, and suddenly it became so noisy and all the magic was broken. They had come to watch the sunset — it’s a popular activity for tourists here. I wanted to leave, but Volchy said it wasn’t serious and that we should wait for the sunset. The sunset was beautiful!

And the descent was very fast! How fun it is to run down the sand. We got back to the car when it was already completely dark and drove to Merzouga to eat the most delicious chicken tagine of our entire trip.