We are sad to see 2014 leave us but we have 2015 to look forward to. One year maybe gone but our adventure is not ended yet. To underline that, we rise early and greet the first sunrise of 2015 back on a sand dune. We walk to a different dune this morning and sit, quite alone watching as first the sky and then the sand begin to change colour. Soon the first rays appear as the New Year sun peeps over the horizon, peeking at its first view of 2015 before crowning the dune in golden light, casting long shadows over a lone camel so that it appears to have a mate on the far dune. Wow, what a way to greet a new year!
We descend the dune and head back to camp for breakfast. Shoes once again full of the wonderfully soft sand. Then for the moment I had been long awaiting... To ride a camel in the Sahara. I could have stayed on that camel all day! It's soft feet plod through the sand as with a swaying motion we round the dunes. From my high perch the views of sand go on and on. This is my highlight of Morocco and not just because Richard was offered 300 camels for me! I was flattered, not a bad price all things considered but where would he keep them? The back garden at home is simply too small, so he turns down what could of been the sale of the century in favour of keeping a wife who takes up less room and who rarely has the hump!
All too soon it is time to return to the jeep. We take a different route back to M'Hamid, it is late morning by the time we arrive. A young couple have turned up and are wondering whether or not to book a desert experience themselves. We take tea with them and tell them of our wonderful night. They are interested in our travels, so we regale them with some of our tales. We are flattered.
They have come from Marrakech and like us, have become exasperated by the hassling all tourists have to contend with in Morocco. It is a shame that even young visitors are feeling put off of a country that could offer them so much excitement. I doubt the hasslers consider such consequences, even for a moment.
After thanking Ibrahim for our stay at Hamada-Sahara, we leave and for the first time know that we are no longer heading south. It is time to go north and choose a route which will lead us homeward.
There being no other road, we return to Zagora but not before taking Fay to play in the sand! Having been out in the jeep, we had a good idea of the terrain and what we could and could not expect Fay to achieve. We had noticed an old fort on the Zagora road when we came; we had stopped at it for a cup of tea but at that time, we had ventured no further down the track. Today we knew Fay would be more than capable of reaching the first dune. Down the track we went, then on to the reg, not too fast as it makes Fay's teeth rattle, then over the hard sand, she is doing brilliantly. We reach the dune, park her front wheels in the sand and have lunch. Now we can honestly say Fay has driven from as Far East as the Russian border to as far south as the Sahara desert. Well done Fay! When we first got Fay, she was in semi retirement up in Scotland; what a new lease of life she's had since then. I bet she never even dreamed of such adventures as she sat quietly in the Scotch mist.
We return to the same campsite we had left a few days before. We look at the other vehicles, this is a campsite popular with overlanders. Surrounded by those big trucks, we can say with pride, Fay has earned her place on this site. It is a nice little site, as soon as you park a mat is placed by your door, together with seats and a table complete with table cloth. Within minutes a pot of mint tea is before you. This is also the only site to have a Christmas tree, the one and only one we have seen this year.
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