Desert dreams

After a half hour off road we began to see buildings and arrived at a communal launch point for desert tours with nice garden and bathroom. Ali tied up our turbans (each style is typical of a certain region: Sahara, Berber, tourig. Bedouin ) and we met our camels. Humphrey, Bethesda,  Our camel guide, Barak spoke only a little English and French but we learned  that only male camels are used for transport, they were 6 years old and we thought we learned the names of the camels which no one could remember other than Andreas "ass/fart" which turned out to mean yellow. Each camel was called by its color- mine was black  "skill". We went 7km which took about  2 hours and included a long stop to climb a dune to watch the sunset (and some rolled down the dunes...). It was quite dark and getting cold when we reached our camp- the first view with a light glowing against the red silk was  so beautiful. By now we know that hot mint tea would be served- always served starting from the right and poured from as high as possible above the glass without splashing. We were then shown to our tents- we had not known that we had the entire camp to ourselves- there were 3 tents which could hold 8 without doubling up (3 twin beds, one king, one double plus a twin) each with attached bathroom. All decorated differently. We then sat around a small camp fire with carpets and stools and pillows, and Ali going 2  of the men who ran the camp play traditional drums and metal (huge) castanet the type instruments. I had  bought a fee bottles of wine in a large supermarket on the way back from Meknes. Dinner of 5 courses served in the welcome tent of soup with bread, zucchini and tomato au gratin, smashed zucchini with spices onions and tomatoes and  garlic- served with white rice, then grilled chicken pieces (a bit burned) and amazing French fries. Last course- fresh fruit but no one had room. Back to the fire for "whiskey without the risky" (strong tea) for star gazing, fun cocabary lessons (be-haa-sa, Marrakesh, California) and Moroccan cigarettes (?). Warm by the fire but very glad to have many blankets at night.