Morocco.... The day the Sahara Flooded - (Days 7 & 8)

Days 7 and 8 tied together so much I felt I needed to write about them together. All I can say is "What An Adventure!".

Day 7 started off stopping at a fossil factory. I've never been to a fossil factory and didn't think I would be very impressed. The tour started off a little slow. We stood outside listening to the man from the factory talk about the stone. He would pour water on huge pieces of stone and the fossils would show up. Then he mentioned the fossils were over 400 MILLION years old. That's when I started to pay attention. I actually thought I misunderstood what he said but someone else asked him to repeat it and he did. This time I was sure he said over 400 MILLION years old.

We continued the tour, stopping to watch a man working with a piece of stone that had fossils embedded. The care the tradesmen have to take while working with these large pieces of stone is impressive.

We continued the tour inside the factory and watched more people working at different stages of creating pieces out of the fossils. Artwork, jewelry, Knick Knacks, even countertops! As they are working with the stone, they never know exactly how large the fossil will be or what else they will find. It's literally a treasure hunt and it's literally an art form.

We walked through the factory in awe. Everything was so beautiful. Once we had toured the factory, we were taken to the retail portion of the factory and got to shop!

We probably spent an hour going through the shop and deciding what to buy. Lots of souvenirs were purchased. It turned out to be an educational and fun stop!

From there, we headed to Rissani. Rissani is known to be the gateway to the desert. We saw ancient architecture that I couldn't even imagine how they built these buildings so many years ago. We visited a local souk (market) and experienced the smells, the colors, the sounds. Each time we visit any type of market, I want to stay and spend the day. I listen to the people talking and want to be one of them. I know most of them are very poor, but they just seem happy. Satisfied. Friendly. I'm sure they never think about traveling the world and seeing other cultures but I'm sure glad I got to see theirs. I stood in the market feeling honored.

As you can probably tell, we were all enjoying the day and all the experiences we were having. By this point of our journey, our group had formed new bonds and friendships and everyone was learning more and more about each other. Little did we know we would get to know each other even better.

This is where everything gets even more interesting!

We headed to our hotel, where we would have lunch and then head to the Sahara. We were leaving all of our luggage with the exception of an overnight bag that we would take to the desert with us. The weather was starting to get cloudy and the forecast was for rain. We all finished lunch fairly quickly and Abdel asked if everyone would be agreeable to head out right away so we could get to the desert before the rain. Everyone agreed. We were assigned our vehicles (Toyota 4 Runners) that we would be riding in since the bus could not drive through the desert. Jim and I were teamed with Jackson and Mary. This came to be a blessing later in the trip but I'll tell you about that later.

We headed out to the desert. Mary commented that we should make sure we had our seat belt on because a friend had told her the ride through the desert was bumpier than the camel ride we were going to take.

Driving through the desert in interesting. And fun. There are no roads so you just drive. Our driver (32 year old Braheem) did not follow the same route the other vehicles did and we were happy with that. We could see them all over to our far right but it seemed they were going somewhere different, They weren't. Jim was sitting in the front seat with our driver and was suggesting to him that we do a little 4 wheeling. Our driver was more than happy to oblige. He started driving up the dunes instead of staying on flat land. He was having as much fun as we were. Mary was sitting in the middle in the back and I was on her right. We were both trying very hard not to end up in each other's laps. But we were laughing and having a great time.

We started getting closer to the others and realized we were going to stop soon. All the vehicles pulled up and "parked" next to a large tent in the middle of nowhere. We were going to go in and meet the nomad woman that lived there.

Everyone went in the tent and sat on the ground or low seats The woman was sitting on the ground with two little boys. We found out later, these were her grandchildren. She was smiling and nodding as we walked in. She had agreed to answer questions from us. She did not speak any English, only Berber. Abdel was our translator. We would ask a question and Abdel would translate to her. Some of the questions and answers are as follows:

Question: How old are you?

Answer: 61. She wasn't actually sure of this. Since they don't have calendars, it's hard to track.

Question: Where do you get your water?

Answer: I have to walk 2 miles to get water and then walk 2 miles back with the water.

Question:  How long do you stay in one place?

Answer: It depends on how long the resources last. Mainly, the water source.

Those are just a few examples of what was asked. She was very kind throughout and was very willing to have her photo taken.

We all said our goodbyes and headed back to our vehicles. We made one more stop before we reached the camp where we would spend the night in tents. Our stop was to get a drink and use the restroom. We all got water and soda and used the restroom. This stop was also a tent. With a flushable toilet!

The stop was quick and we finished the trip to our camp with no problem. The people at the camp all helped with getting our luggage to the correct tents. It was starting to drizzle a little. Abdel asked if we still wanted to go on the dromedary (one humped camel) ride. It was a unanimous yes. Most of us had purchased scarves earlier and the camp people helped us wrap then around our heads. Then we walked to our dromedary. I was a little fearful about getting on but I tried not to show it. I was fascinated with how to get on. The dromedary is kneeling on his legs when I approached. I was instructed to throw a leg over and get on. So I did. It wasn't the most graceful mount but it was ok. I was told to lean back as they got him to stand. First he lifts his front legs and gets on his knees. Then he stands his back legs us, then he stands his front legs up the remainder of the way. You have to really pay attention as to which way you should be leaning as he is doing this. Oh, by the way, only males give rides. Females either get distracted or cause a distraction (I can't remember which).

Jim and I had our camels tied together and then they tied Jackson and Mary's to ours. So we had four walking together. Our guide walked in front and led them.

It continued to drizzle but the views were breathtaking. And we could see the heavier rain coming. We were out for about an hour and a half and then had to head back in. We all dismounted and headed to our tents to shower (yes, the tents had flushable toilets and showers) and change clothes (can you say wet camel smell?) before dinner in the big tent.

Dinner was delicious. And we had a local band play music for us afterward. It was Jackson and Mary's anniversary so everyone was up dancing and having a great time. We stayed in the dining tent for quite a while. The rain had stopped and no one thought any more of it. When we walked back to our tents it was dark so no one could see the storm clouds.

Jim and I both went to sleep quickly. It was a beautiful night and we were extremely relaxed. In the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of heavy rain on the roof of the tent. I love this sound so I went back to sleep right away. Then about 5:00 am I woke up again. Again, to the sound of heavy rain on the roof. Hmmmm. I got up to go to the bathroom. The glow of the phone charges provided enough light for me so I didn't have to turn the lights on. I got back in bed and suddenly, it got VERY dark. The power had gone out. I was feeling optimistic and figured it would come back on shortly. Jim was also awake at this point. We waited. Nothing. We waited a little longer. Nothing. Jim got up and tried to look outside but it was raining too hard. He used the flashlight on his phone to look through the plastic window. We could see other people doing the same thing. All you could see were flashlights and a pitch dark sky. Jim and I both sat in the chairs waiting for daylight. When it came, we could see there were puddles everywhere. We were supposed to go to the dining tent for breakfast but we wanted to wait until the rain let up a little. There was no power for anything anyway.

We made it down there a short time later. There were already a few people there. Still no power. Something had happened to the generator also so we didn't even have that as a backup. There was tea in the tent but no coffee, This was not a good picture. Many of us depended on our coffee. Specifically, the caffeine!

We all ate and once the rain let up a little, we started to venture outside to take a look around. No one expected what we soon realized. The Sahara had flooded and right behind our camp was a raging river. In the middle of the Sahara!

The river was running right through our path to get out. We weren't going anywhere. For the next few hours we watched the water rise. Some were a little concerned but no one seemed to be terribly upset. I think we kept each other calm. Abdel was on his phone constantly with Gate 1 Headquarters advising them of the situation and trying to figure out how we would get out of there. We spent hours watching the river rise. It flooded the area where the generator was located so it was definitely beyond repair. We watched sand dunes slowly fall away into the river.

We talked, we laughed, some people took naps. Everyone had each other's backs.

Finally, a truck pulled up and said they had found a way out. Abdel gathered us all together and we got into our vehicles. Abdel got into the pickup that was leading the way and we all followed him out. This was going to be interesting. We had to drive through and up and over sand dunes that normally weren't travelled. There were many times I thought we were going to fall down and hill and roll over. My head was in Mary's shoulder quite frequently. The driver was not veering from the path this time. He was following right behind the others. A while later, we all stopped. Abdel got out of the truck and said "We Made It!:.

We found out later that the path the truck driver had originally found was flooded when we went through. So he wasn't sure the path he was taking us on would get us out. But it did. Jim looked at our driver and told him that he wasn't sure what was on the other side of some of the sand dunes when we were at the top and couldn't see over. Breeham looked at him and said, "Me neither".

This is not the end of the story though. We thought it was, but we were wrong.

We headed back to the hotel, hoping for dinner and a good night sleep. Ha! As we were driving, we had to cross a couple of bridges. We crossed the first one and luckily the water had not covered the bridge. However, we got to the second one and we weren't so lucky. It was completely covered and we really couldn't tell if the bridge was even still there. The only thing we could do was wait to see if it went down. We all got out and took pictures. We talked. Some napped on the bus. It finally became apparent that the water was not going to go down any time soon so we turned the bus around and headed back the other direction. Well guess what ? Now, the first bridge was under water. So yes, we were trapped between two flooded bridges.

Abdel was great at keeping calm. At least on the outside. He assured us all would be good and we would not be stuck long. Luckily in between these two bridges was a coffee shop. I bet this coffee shop had never done this much business. Other buse were also there Luckily, we got there first. We all found seats, charged phones, and used the restroom. We were there for over 4 hours. People went outside and took walks. Ellen talked to friends of hers on the phone that she had previously gone to Morocco with. Abdel had snacks on the bus and everyone else that had snacks put them out on a table and we had a little mini-dinner. Talk about bonding.

We were all a little concerned that the coffee shop would close until we found out that Abdel has connections. There are cameras in the shop and the owner of the shop happened to be in Fez watching what was going on. He recognized Abdel and called the person that was running the shop that night. He asked him to give Abdel the phone. He told Abdel they would stay open as long as we needed them to. We would have full access. That would never happen in the U.S.

We all laughed about the fact that Abdel actually does have friends everywhere!

About 9:00 we found out the bridge had reopened. Yippee! Except there was a long line waiting to cross. And no one knew if it would be okay with a big bus crossing over! When it was our turn to finally cross, we all held our breath. No one talked as we were crossing. Jim had pointed out the window breaker tool hanging by us in case we needed to break the glass. I kept my eye on it. Once we made it across, we all cheered!

We got back to the hotel exhausted. Abdel had been on the phone with the hotel and they had a full dinner waiting for us. We made it!

This was an experience of a lifetime. It was considered a 1,000 year rain. Someone had told us that it had not rained in that particular area of the desert for over 7 years. They had been in a horrible draught. The one night we were there, everything changed. Our group had gone through what could have been a traumatic experience but instead, we all came out a closer knit group than before. I doubt there are many groups that become that close. We all kept each other's spirits up and with Abdel leading us, we made it an experience instead of a disaster.

We found out the next day that the place we had stopped for a drink and a restroom break in the desert had been washed away. I worry whether the nomad woman we talked to made it through the rain ok. So many people ask if we got to see the plants bloom after the rain. No, we didn't. I think it takes more than a few hours to see the effects of the rain on plants. We had so many things that "could have" gone wrong. Instead, we had so many things that went right! I trusted that Gate 1 would have done whatever they had to do to keep us safe.

I am proud to say I was part of Moroccan history. It will be a story I tell for the rest of my life