Nate and Kara Buchanan document the first day of a four-day trip from Marrakech into the Atlas Mountains and Sahara Desert. The vlog covers meeting Saharian guides (Abdul and Rashid), stops at a traditional Berber village and kasbahs, scenic drives, meals, and arrival at a mountain guest house where they prepare for desert activities.
This morning we are checking out of our Riad here in Marrakech, and we're heading into the Atlas Mountains in the Sahara Desert for the next four days.
Highlights include sandboarding and riding camels. The guy from top desert should be here to pick us up any second.
Let's go.
Good morning. I'm Nate. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. This is nice.
It is nice.
Just made a quick pit stop at the store to pick up some provisions. And now we're about to head into the mountains.
Is 11:00am we are now two hours into our drive. We made our first pit stop for some coffee. I think we were supposed to get mint tea, but thought coffee sounded better. Our two guides are Saharian. Their family still lives in the desert and this is their family business, taking people into the desert and showing them what it's like to live there. So we're really excited for the next four days.
They're so cool.
These are our two guides for the week. For the next four days. This is Abdul and Rashid. They're going to be with us, taking us through the desert.
He's already threatened to leave us there.
We just stopped at a traditional Berber village. All of these houses are made out of stone and mud and the roofs are made out of bamboo. He just pointed out to us the traditional bath of this village, just like the one we went to yesterday. So even the mountain people have their bath time. We saw some donkeys and where the ladies make bread and where their sheep live. So just incredible.
Good pit stop.
Yeah.
Back on the road. Yeah. Don't get run over.
Back on the road. Inshah. Wow. Is that the road we just came up? Yeah. That is windy. The views just keep getting better.
What is this called?
Kasba. It means one fortress.
The inside of this room is so beautiful, but from the outside, you would never know. It looked like this because they wanted to respect the pour. So the outside looks like a normal riad.
And for the security as well.
And for security and. Yeah, it's amazing in here. It's crazy.
And we learned that they didn't have varnish, so they covered the cedarwood with egg whites. That's a tempera technique. Not a bad view from the dining room.
Sam.
Where to next? We go to. We joined the river Onila and all river. That is very nice. Also very nice. Kasbah. Very nice view in the valley. Traffic jam. I can't help but ask him to stop every five seconds so I can get out and take a video of the next little city. We pass. They're all so picturesque.
We stopped at this restaurant for lunch. We're sitting on a really nice terrace. I ordered the chicken couscous, which I got the first night we were here, but this one looks a little better.
That's good stuff. And we got this red sauce.
Smells spicy.
I'm not positive, but I have a good feeling we're going to be hiking to the top of that hill here in just a few minutes.
And now we're going to visit another Caspa. But Rasheet is going to be our guide this time.
There he is.
What a view. The building right there is where we just had lunch. I think we burned it off. Yeah.
Made it to the top to this fortress.
Building thingy.
This is reminding me a lot of our Everest trekking adventure. It's just like, I feel like we're so far into the mountains, yet there's, like, a little town right here. It's just crazy how people can live this far out of, like, a city.
I think you're going to be more impressed once we get in the desert.
Yeah.
We're hitting the road again, heading towards the desert. But I've got to stop videoing so much because I've almost burned up both of our batteries to the desert to meet you again.
We have arrived at our guest house for the night.
Oh, and a cookie.
This one's like an eyeball. I think it's mint tea with a lot of sugar.
It's delicious.
It is so good.
Beautiful. This is cool. Wow.
This is so cool.
Wow. Good night. Very good.
This is our suite.
It's so nice. Oh, my gosh. This is like what they give you instead of a robe. I did not expect to stay in a room this nice in the middle of the Atlas Mountains. They put us up in the penthouse.
All of today has been way more comfortable than I thought it was going to be. I thought driving into the Sahara desert was going to be like driving into the Maasai Mara in Kenya, where we were, like, bumping all day. Thankfully, it was so much better. The roads were really smooth. The four runner that we rode in was really nice. It was a great day.
And now we're gonna end the day with dinner downstairs. And they were setting up for live music.
Should be interest.
She washes my hair, and then she gets this brush and she's like, brush it.
Oh, wait. Was the hair wash fantastic?
Yeah.
I feel like we're on the moon right now. Or Mars, maybe.
That is where Gladiator was filmed.
Part like, I'm sure a tiny section.
Tiny section of it.
They're definitely in a coliseum at some point in the movie.
