Seeking ShangriLa :: Photos :: Morocco

After a 3hr bus ride turned into a 5.5hr odyssey to the Moroccan Hollywood -- Ouarzarzate -- Thomas and I knew something had to change. We had to control our own destiny. We had to have our own wheels. That's how we met the White Beast, a new-ish Fiat Palio. With keys in hand, we sped off into the desert, dancing across the Southern edge of the High Atlas Mountains before veering south, straight at the dunes of Erg Chebbi, the tourist trap on Morocco's border with Algeria. On the nearly 1500km-long loop, we visited ancient casbah's, walked in starlit canyons, picked up hitchhikers (including 8 Moroccan women at once, and a guy who'd thumbed it from Southern France!) and dodged date-selling Moroccans as they dove onto the road to make the sale. We rolled into the dunes at sunset, and scaled them again for a sunrise breakfast the next morning - smiling down to peeved camel-trekkers on package tours below. Not much compares to the Desert for beauty.. and I've seen quite a lot..

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