Life in the desert (or living without a watch)

- In Morocco, at which time do you usually eat?

     - When we’re hungry.

This is what I liked the most from the life in the desert: living without a watch. The population of the driest part of the country gets up at sunrise, eats when they are hungry and goes to sleep when they are sleepy. I did the same: I removed my watch, hid it in a pocket, and let the rhythm of the trip lead me.

Short introduction to the desert

Before travelling to Morocco, when thinking about the desert, only one image came to my mind: sand dunes, yellow and orange, a very blue sky and no sign of vegetation. Is it so due to the films? Do the films always show the same aspect of the desert? In any case, during the days I spent in the desert I discovered that there is much more than that. 

Conversations in the Atlas' valleys

It’s just a matter of references. I was once in a plane with an Indian friend, flying over the Alps, when he asked me ‘the Alps are quite small, right?’ I was surprised, I never thought about the Alps as small. ‘Well, not really... some peaks are over 4000 meters’ I told him, and he replied ‘so they’re small... Himalayas are over 8000 meters’. Uhm, yes, compared this way, the Alps are not so high, and neither is Atlas, with its highest peaks being around 4000 meters as well.

The enchanted valley

It is interesting how, depending on the regions we visit, our perception of the country can be very different. If I had to define Morocco in three words, it would be calm, hospitality, and music. But I think that somebody who has only been in Marrakesh would ask me where I found the ‘calm’. Well, not in Marrakesh. But during my trip I did not spend a lot of time in big cities, I mainly stayed in the Atlas and the desert, and there I found calm, hospitality, and music.