Looking for Dorothy Lamour

Saturday was essentially the end of our trip, with a couple days of transit to make it back to Minnesota. In the night, we had an amazing storm roll across the desert camp – very high winds and rain. We were glad that our tents had thick metal frames, well anchored in the ground. All of the carpets and poofs and lamps in the camp were tossed about, but as one of the hosts said with a shrug “it’s the desert.”

We had a lovely final breakfast, spoiled only by the ubiquitous flies. I gather they’re worse right now because of the freak rains that came in September and brought all kinds of life to this part of the Sahara. We packed up and got in the Land Cruisers around 9 to head back to Mhamid. On the ride back, more coherent, I was marveling at these trusty Land Cruisers. Ours had 318,000km on it. Who knows how many different lives it lived before ending up as a daily bus across the desert. After all of that, all the features appeared to work, there were no warning lights on the dash, and there were no strange squeaks or rattles. Things which cannot be said for some very coddled vehicles I can think of back home.

From Mhamid, we reloaded our cars and agreed to meet up in Zagora, an hour and a half up the road. Patch had been deprived of her usual post-climb ice cream a few days back, and we had to right that wrong. Scoop shops are thin on the ground in Morocco, and as we learned time and time again, just because something is on Google Maps doesn’t mean it really exists. But, we’d found a spot called the Ice Queen in Zagora and thought it was worth a shot. It turned out to be for real! We all had a scoop, got gas, and set out. Patch and Julius are sticking around for a few extra days and are heading further east and south. The rest of us set off on the long drive back to Marrakesh.

Nothing especially eventful to speak of on the drive, but a few notes on the roads in Morocco. It may have the highest volume of amazing roads in the world, and they’re almost all brand new. Perfectly smooth asphalt on twisting mountain passes, with respectful, sane drivers. I know the roads in northern Morocco are a popular destination for European enthusiasts, but the south is amazing as well. Moroccan police don’t fool around, so you need to respect speed limits (especially in towns) but gosh it’d be a fantastic country for a long road trip in a Lotus or a Morgan. Hmm.

Dan drove the last stint of the day, which meant navigating Marrakesh at night. We didn’t have to go all the way into the old town, but it was still plenty of Saturday night chaos. He managed like a champ. We got parked and checked into our Riad, a gorgeous place just inside the walls.

We took a quick walk to grab some food and enjoy the nightlight, then sent Lara off to bed, as she had a 6am flight. The rest of us took a slower walk back to the Riad and tucked in. Today, we’ll spend a final few hours in the city, return the rental and head for Paris. Kat and I are hoping to pop into the city, as we’ve got an overnight layover.

Despite me losing a few days to feeling rotten, it’s been an awesome trip. I’m thankful to have such a great group of friends to travel with, and to have had a chance to check out of the hourly drama of American politics for a few weeks.

Seriously though, Matt Gaetz, what the fuck?