We reached Ksar es Souk (Er Rashidia today) by a winding road along the river Ziz valley,a green lezzard in the rocky plateau.A vast surface of low square houses, a silent athmosphere just interrupted by a donkey grunting. Very few people on the hot street.If something was expected to happen...
Our small square house surrounded with a wall was located at the former legionnaire's cemetery.
The hyenes were standing in a row for sunset and performed a usual concert of laughter.Strange and frightening at the same time.At night mainly lezzards and scorpions were wondering.A couple of months later I was able to catch my first deadly scorpio that I still keep in a small bottle of formalin.
On the other hand my pet was a big lezzard 1,5m long with a secured sewed mouth ,only opened in front were I was supposed to feed him with flies and other insects.This was a gift from my new moroccan friends from the village.Everyone had his own lezzard instead of a dog .
My father got a special task to lead a governemental expedition in the sahara desert in order to notify and record the water ressources ,underground mainly,so necessary for the maintain of life in the region of Tafilalet.Many other experts were of the expedition, as my mother and myself,counting fifty land rover jeeps of that time.
The Sahara desert officially covers an area comprised by Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, west Sahara, Sudan, Tunisia.It is the ocean bed of a former sea,comprising 85% of dry rock bed HAMADA,15% of sand dunes ERG.Multiple rivers are flowing across,forming lakes and oasis but the majority are flowing underground were water reaches an argile layer.Some of the rivers last only a few days per year,the reason no bridges are needed.The most interesting detail is that the local bedouins are wearing a turban which corresponds exactely to the depth of their water flow.
Some are 3m long some 5m and the touaregs travelling from one part to the other of the Sahara waere 26 to 30m long turbans that can envelop their head and body.In the desert they use them for collecting water from the wells usually wholes in the ground marked by three stones.They let the veil of tissue down to the wet sand and recuper the water by squeezing the tissue in their mouth.
The roaring of the fifty jeeps, an impressive demonstration of power in the immense space , announced the start.The road from Errashidia to Erfoud was good so less than fourty km were swallowed in half an hour or more.Erfoud was a camel and horse market for years.The next destination was Rissani the last city to be reached by road before the sahara.A beautiful open air market surrounded by covered arcade of shops reminded the tales of Sheherezade.Spices,fresh vegetables.silver and gold exchanged by a strange kind of old people all with glasses and white hair.They explained us that they were Jews from immemorable times,when the twelve jewish tribes left their land,one of them is supposed to have reached Rissani.Since then they live together with local berbers but mary only among them.So they degenerated very much and all are merely blind.
The next destination was the desert and border with Algeria.The night came after a beautiful sunset,pink and orange sky on a few clouds were a prime painting motive.Suddenly while the tents were fixed the night swallowed everything...everything but the sky exploded with millions of stars.Such a spectacle is possible only in the desert,and you cannot forget the descriptions of it by Antoine de Saint Exupery,in Night flight and other books .The stars kept us wondering were are the limits of dreams and reality.Who are we,where do we come from,is anyone else living somewhere there?
The morning moon continued to remind us to St.Exupery's Little Prince...Only the drivers were very busy in checking their vehicles ,water supply,food and spare parts,tents and instruments for measurement...Of we go in the Hamada, dry , rocks with no mercy ,one wonders how life and water coexist over there.The guides,berbers ,adviced not to drink water except early morning and evening,only tea ,not hot ,could be consumed.We laughed when somebody just broke two eggs on the roof of their jeep.Fried in seconds and coke was so hot that undrinkable.Fortunately we reached a sandy area where a tribe build an underground village.They were cultivating khana,for aesthetic and medical purposes.The red color for hands and feet to prevent infections and also for women hair coloring.Men were welcomed by the chief and invited inside for tea and some sweet.Women were guided to the ladies premisses for same kind reception.
The tea ceremony lasts quite some time and the preparation need a certain skill.Fresh mint leaves are poured with boiling water many times,finally broken pieces of sugar are added and the glasses colored with four colors are ready to reach your lips.Seated on carpets we enjoyed the fresh athmosphere perfumed with water of orange flouers.We left our nice hosts with regrets as an uncertain destiny was waiting us.
We slept before the Erg ,because it is never safe to sleep surrounded by sand dunes,storms could harm you badly.
The huge sand dunes are like big waves in the ocean.The feeling of being vulnerable and unpowerful in front of nature added some spice to the adventure.The reassuring fact was the company of experienced guides and substantial quantity of jeeps.
To complete the adventure all of a sudden a huge cloud of sand appeared in the sky.Awsome and horrifying scene.You cant see cant breathe and the surrounding near you changes in a matter of hours.What was top becomes bottom and vice versa.After the storm we were released to see and breathe again uncovering our faces. Nonetheless we could not find ourselves around.It looked the same but all different our jeep was alone,where the others we started shouting and screeming,nothing a couple of human voices were heared from somewere but then disapeared.We drove in that direction and after half an hour we realised that we were lost.Our guide suggested that we climb to the nearest mountain,a solid rocky one.What we did,but there we encountered a family of bedouins ,nine of them on a small promontory.A tent nearby,a fire place...Unfortunately all dead,they could not find their way in the sand storm and reach a well for water.The father ,mother ,kids .Horrible what the nature had done to these local men,bedouins,prepared for such difficult situations and still impotent to survive.
The calm reigned again and we could finally at sunset find our way out and communicate by radio with the rest of the expedition.We slept together after such a survival test.Again the clear sky performed a spectacle with all the constellations. Chariots , north star,Orion...Withnessing millions of years of life and death,again and again...Who are we,where do we come from?
Driving out of the Erg,we were going south again on Hamada.Stopping from time to time to notify and measure the soil and water depth.We reached a huge stone 70m in lenght nicely designed with fossils,remaining of ancient shells fish and other sea creatures.
After the Draa valley reaching Ouarzazate we continued to Tinghir and the gorge of Todra.Astonishing scenery reminding Petra but in a much bigger proportion.That was overground river and beutiful paysage.
Calming the spirits after such a dramatic venue we settled back in our Ksar es Souk with a happy end story and successful expedition
When back to my school I got rewarded for my writing of that adventure and it made it possible to reproduce it for you after so many years,that occured in 1962 .