October 31, 2018

October 31, 2018

This morning we made a brief stop at a local elementary school in Erfoud. The students are out for holiday so only a few were present.

Erfoud is the fossil factory of Morocco. The annual Gem and Mineral Show brings loads of Moroccan fossil dealers to Tucson. Hundreds of million years ago this area was a shallow sea teaming with Trilobites and Ammonite-like Nautiloids. When Africa rammed into Europe the Atlas Mountains were pushed up along with this ocean sediment. We stopped at a Fossil Factory and Showroom to learn about the trade. Unfortunately this stop is a short diversion for us. The selection at this store is very limited and pricey compared to what is available in Tucson.

We drive southeast following the Ziz River toward the Sahara Desert encountering the ruins of the medieval city of Sijilmasa. This city was the northern terminus of the lucrative Trans-Saharan trade. Huge caravans of dromedary camels would travel to Timbuktu to trade salt for West African gold. This trade made Timbuktu into an unlikely center of wealth and culture. This route died when the Portuguese circumvented it by sailing around the west coast of Africa. The sprawling city of Sijilmasa, made from mud adobe, has ‘melted’ over the centuries leaving just remnants. Timbuktu is the epitome of “nowhere” and “the end of the road”. This World Heritage Site is on my bucket list. I am thinking we should try going.

If we are going to join a camel caravan, we need supplies. We stop in the local market of the modern town of Sijilmasa (renamed Rissani by the French). Aimee and I buy scarves to wrap around our faces to keep out the dust. The vendor showed us how to tie them into Berber headdresses. The market is also filled with spices, nuts, raisins, and dates. The dates grow on all the local Palm trees. We tried one. They are sweet and tasty. I am surprised they are not more popular in the US as they are a staple in Africa and the Middle East.

Before leaving we walk through a typical Berber fortified village called a Ksar. It is basically an adobe apartment building that now is wired with electricity. Next door is a mosque that contains the tomb of Muhammad as-Sharif, the founder of the current royal dynasty. One of the pillars of Islam is Haj or Pilgrimage to Mecca. For the poor, a visit to a shrine containing a descendant of Mohammed can be a substitute.

We hire a driver and four-wheel drive jeep to get us into the desert. The terrain is mostly a flat rocky plain. It seems like a salt pan or dry lake bed. We stop at a Berber nomad camp in Oasis Tisserdmine for lunch. Afterwards we are driven to the edge of the Sahara with its intense burnt orange sand. The dunes are the size of mountains and extend thousands of miles across Africa to Egypt.

The jeep isn’t made for deep sand. We locate a camel caravan and join up. The camel driver gets the animals to kneel on the sand so we can mount them. Back on their feet we take off up the sand dunes. It takes 52 days to travel to Timbuktu by caravan. We only make it to the dune peak by late evening. There we dismount and watch the sunset.

As we are resting I watch a shiny blue scarab beetle at my feet make its way across the desert leaving a distinctive trail. My butt hurts already and I don't know which end of the camel smells worse. I turn to Aimee and say lets go home. She is relieved. We turn around and head back to the same hotel as last night.