Although I  have described  in detail the food we ate in Morocco, I have said very little about what we  drank. Hassan arranged for coffee to be ready half an hour before breakfast each day. As for tea, Moroccan mint tea  is part of a ceremony. The server pours the tea into a small glass from a level of about two feet above it, and sugar can be added. I’m sure the servers  have done  lots of rehearsing  to become safe at pouring tea, and I hope they practiced using cold water.

As for alcohol, we  ordered drinks  at our “Meet and Greet” on the first night of our tour.  Early in the tour, Hassan took several of us to a liquor store  to select a variety of wines  that would be available throughout our adventure.

On Day 8, we would leave the bus behind and head out to O.A.T.’s encampment in the Sahara. The challenge was trying to decide what we needed to take with us for the next two days that would fit in a small bag,  and what we should leave behind on the bus. Packing our clothes was easy, but I had  brought enough kinds of medications that would cover every possible need, and there wasn’t room in my bag for everything.

On our way, our bus  stopped at a fossil factory where fossils were being discovered and then polished and made into various art objects. Nick has purchased several fossils through the years,  and he bought a  piece  here to add to his collection.  Jennifer and Andy bought a coffee table that would be shipped to their house in New York.

Our next stop was at a camel enclosure,  at which the owner asked for a volunteer to milk a camel. Andy gave it a try. The owner offered the milk to anyone in our  group who wanted to drink it, but there were no takers.

Next, we stopped at a small bazaar in an oasis town for which we had a local guide. Nick was happy to find ice cream there. As for me, I’m always on the lookout for a pin for my hat. I found one, but it was broken.

We were split into groups of four, and each group was assigned to a “4 by 4” vehicle. I was expecting something like the pink jeeps in  Sonoma, but  these were enclosed  and even had air conditioning. Being that I didn’t need as much legroom as my three companions, I took the middle seat in the back. Nick was on my left, and Kathy, a retired educator from California, was on my right. We wondered how our drivers could find their way on sand and having no roads.

Our desert encampment consisted of canvas tents that were about 15′ x 20′. Each one has doors and windows,  a shower and a toilet, and there was  air conditioning but no heat (the desert can get very cold at night).  Although the color scheme in each tent was different,  I noticed immediately that ours was turquoise and magenta. Many years ago, I asked the members of  my class of two-year-olds to tell us their favorite color.  Most of the  children said theirs was  red or green or another primary color. I was astounded by the answer of a boy named Alex, who replied that his favorite colors were turquoise and magenta. There I was, still amazed by Alex’ answer many years ago,  in a turquoise and magenta room in the Sahara Desert thousands of miles from our classroom back in Westport!

Before lunch we had a cooking demo and the food was served for lunch. Our lunch  consisted of a cold vegetable salad that contained cauliflower, beets, potatoes, beans, and  of course, olives. The main course was  “kofta” burgers made of spiced meat. They resembled small hamburgers; Tanner called them  sliders. They were served with fries. Dessert was fresh fruit.

Later we all boarded our 4 by 4 vehicles and were driven out to the dwelling of a farmer whose father had been a nomad. He showed us his plantings, that included oak trees that produce cork, almond  and lemon trees, lot of herbs  including rosemary and thyme, and alfalfa. We were in the Sahara Desert, yet everything was lush and green! The farmer had eight children who helped  on the farm. Although he was getting on in years, he had no intention of retiring. He even demonstrated how well he could climb a tree!

Eventually, we wanted to watch the sunset. Several of our friends decided to get a better view by climbing a dune. Climbing up  was the easy part. Tanner rolled all the way back down. For dinner, we had vegetable soup,  chicken tagine, and an orange pastry. Nick went out to photograph the night sky.

We went to sleep looking forward to tomorrow’s camel ride.

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