At the end of our time in Fez, we picked up a rental car. I was scoping out options online before we left and booked a little Hyundai for $250 for 8 days. Awesome! However, picking up the car was not so awesome. They didn't have any GPS units even though we had booked one and they wanted us to take a car that had the ominous "check engine" light blinking. We were not keen about taking said car into the desert so we asked for a different one. They kept saying they didn't have another one and we kept saying we didn't want to take this one. Then suddenly another one drove up that was in perfect working order so crisis averted! And we bought a map.
We drove to Midelt, stayed overnight, and then took off for the desert the next morning. There was a bit of a sand storm the afternoon of our arrival so the overall vibe was super creepy. It's such a desolate landscape! We checked into Hotel Kasbah Mohayut and hung out by the pool a bit before the blowing sand forced us into our room for awhile. Desert treks were cancelled that night due to the sand storm. Thankfully we were staying more than one night so it didn't affect us. I was just praying that the wind would stop blowing so we could head out in the desert the following day!
The next morning we woke up for sunrise... and totally missed it. We were misinformed of the time, but it didn't really matter as we just amused ourselves by scampering around the dunes right behind the hotel. The rest of the day was spent lounging by the pool. I cannot recommend enough booking a place with a pool! It was insanely hot (low 40s!) and pretty unbearable to sit in the shade for more than 20 minutes or so.
That evening, we headed out into the desert on camels! It was the perfect evening to do so. It was a bearable temperature once the sun went down and there was no wind! We were on the camels for about an hour before arriving at our camp. We had an awesome meal under the stars and then we all lugged our beds out of the tents so we could sleep outside. This sounded quite romantic but in reality it got quite windy so it was a fitful night of sleep. But the morning! Waking up in the desert was just unreal. The light was so soft and the dunes seemed to go on forever. I can't even describe it. This absolutely stands out as one of the most phenomenal things we've done in our travels.
Eventually we had to bid the dunes adieu. We had some mint tea and then hopped back on the camels. The hotel was awesome and let us keep in our stuff in our room during the camel trek and use it the next morning to shower/clean up. We packed up our car and then headed towards Todra Gorge. Coming up next!
