A wonderful sandy day…….
Admin on May 06 2009 at 5:12 pm | Filed under: Culture, Food, Photographs, Sweet, Travel
So after parting with our rather handsome, teeth grinding friends, we had a quick shower and headed off in a blistering sandstorm with our wonderful guide, Hassan for the day. I will split the day in two sections as it was quite busy!! Now it was quite hot and the wind was making visibility rather poor to say the least, but we had only that day and you always have to make the best of any situation….
so off we went…First stop….The Groupe des Bambaras…
For hundreds of years the village of Khamlia has been occupied by a mixture of Arabs, Berbers and different tribes of Sub-Saharan origin. In Khamlia today the greater tribe is the Bambaras. Also called the Gnawas, descendants of the slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa that were brought to this region hundreds of years ago. They play a type of music known as Gnawa de Khamlia or Gnaoua Music. Slaves from Senegal, Sudan and Mali brought it here and the tradition has remained. The music is of great spiritual importance to them and plays a fundamental part of their daily lives.
It was a wonderful performance and one can only hope that they keep the tradition alive.
Second stop for the day….Who said there was no water in the desert? We stopped at this amazing lake on the outskirts of Merzouga, known as Lake Sirji. The flamingos were sadly nowhere to be seen due to the wind!!!
And of course a stop at the “panoramique”….would be fantastic if we could’ve seen the wonderful sand dunes, if it wasn’t for all that sand!!!
We headed towards an area where the “nomads” keep their cattle and camels. The ground is black with volcanic rocks and you quite literally feel like you are on another planet.
So there we were driving along….. when we spotted a chap walking along…..the middle of nowhere…..Hassan flagged him down…Salam….Salam…..Labas….Bekhir….chit chat, the chap turns around and starts leading us to a collection of mud huts…. Turns out he was on his way to look for his camels, but after chatting to Hassan turned back to allow us to use a room in his house to enjoy our lunch out of the wind. One of the things I love about Africa, not just Morocco, is the hospitality you receive from complete strangers who will welcome you into their homes and offer you so much when they materially have so little!
It is quite humbling!
So there we were, Hassan handed our little bag of goods over, which were promptly sliced up for us and presented on a platter, we sat around on cushions eating our meal of tomatoes, onions, olives, pilchards and bread. We had probably one of the most pleasant lunches we have ever had, in a mud hut in the desert!!
Hassan was telling us that years ago his family was extremely wealthy and had about 300 camels and sheep; they can now no longer keep more than 30 as there is just not enough food anymore to see them through the long summer. I wonder if our grandchildren will one day enjoy the same privilege of having lunch with such marvellous people. Food for thought!!
I so wish that i could of been there with you all, very envious, but probably not of all that sand getting in everywhere. Lovely images of the Bambaras. Keep it up.
What a fantastic experience! And you are right – that landscape really is lunar and quite alien…