Mardi le 3 mars - Camel Trek

This morning we were off on a Camel trek – I must admit I was slightly hesitant about this for 2 reasons – 1: I had been told the movement can make you motion sick so I wanted to prevent this and took sealegs prior
2: A bit scared of falling off when they are getting up or down as it is quite a steep angle, but also it being ‘naughty’ and going out of control!
A very nice Berber man arrived in a van and took us out to the camels, about a 10 minute journey. We were met by the 2 camels – Scooby Doo and a name beginning with T…I can’t quite remember. Seph and I were first on and up with Scooby Doo, Nev and Hermione followed closely behind us – partly because they were tied to the back of our camel!

Anyway no worries…it was much more enjoyable than the donkey ride. We rode for about an hour to the Souss River where we met up with many more camel trekkers. We dismounted our camel and walked along the river a bit to a viewing platform. The board at the entrance had looked promising with all the different species we might see, however the tide was out and not a bird to be seen. Amazingly though there was a man selling souvenirs……needless to say we bought a scorpion keyring! This man was full of information and told us how if you don’t get to hospital within an hour approx after a scorpion sting you will die! He then followed this stunner up with the fact that a cobra bite will see you gone in 3-5 minutes! Just as my heart rate was returning to normal he did say that as it was technically winter all the snakes are hibernating and it is too cold for the scorpions. Whew!

We passed many ‘dwellings’ and I use the term lightly. I couldn’t believe what some families were living in…I guess it is harsh reality when you see it close up. I always really knew that many of the world’s population were nowhere as fortunate as others but it still is quite a shock. However what did blow me away as many of these shacks – built with tin and tent canvas or tarpaulins was the fact that on top was a satellitie dish. Even more was many dwellings merged into others and there might be a whole ‘campsite’ but it would have 5 satellite dishes! This brings forth many questions – Is there electricity in there? Even when it is not weather proof? How can they afford TV? Satellite TV? What do they go without to have this? You will have to use your imagination a bit as we couldn’t get a clear photo of these examples.
A slight aside – but on all buildings especially apartment blocks the roof is full of satellite dishes. I have never seen so many in one place ever!

Back to our trusty dromedaries….I do need to point out that technically they are not camels. Camels have 2 humps dromedaries’ just one! We finished our trek with a slight downpour, the last 3 minutes only. As we returned to our minivan the nice driver was waiting for us, I don’t think he had actually left but just waited in the van. After our return to the hotel we filled in our time until about 3:00pm when an overwhelming tiredness overtook me and I went for a sleep… very unusual for me to sleep during the day. No…to all those smart alecs out there…. I know I can sleep in the mornings but this is the middle of the day! Nev went for a run. This siesta was explained after Nev recalled I had taken ‘Sealegs’ and that I do fight hard later in the day to stay awake after these.

This is as close to the King's palace as we could get - This is a 'holiday' Palace and not his permanant residence.

Tea tonight was at the Medina - Moroccan Restaurant – Soup and flat bread, Tajine – poulet and vegetables, couscous with lamb, traditional slice/cake for dessert. I was very impressed with the children who each night took what was thrown at them for tea and tried everything. It was only the Japanese that nobody ate. I had also thrown down the challenge that every time we were in the main restaurant for lunch that we all had to try something we had never tried before. The girls took this challenge and tried heaps of different things. Seph turned out to really be a true descendant from her grandparents (my parents) as every lunch time she started with the soup. For those of you who don’t know my parents were terrific soup makers, both had different styles and you could always tell who had made which soup. It was always the first question when we were having tea-‘Who made this soup?’ My parents had soup with every meal, summer or winter. In the past few years they have helped Grandpa make soup on occasion. However I hadn’t realised how much Seph loved soup and she certainly didn’t mind what flavour it was. Hermione too loves soup but it has to be Tomato!
Show – Miss Agador a quiz/game show where 6 female members of the resort were picked out to participate. Full of laughs and sexual innuendo. In fact in 1 game they had to race to the audience and retrieve as many pairs of long pants as they could get. A lot of the audience was sitting pantless. The next game – collect as many bras! A rather interesting night. It also involved grabbing a man from the audience to form a team and then popping balloons in certain positions….need I say more. However the kids loved it, each night they sat with their friends to watch the show. The next day Seph said “ In the game last night with the balloons…what was up with that?!” I very quickly changed the topic!