more-occo

well we had that little spurt of swell that was only really one worthwhile day, then it kinda crapped out. the forecast showed no swell for at lezast a week, so instead of sitting around taghazoute with nothing to do, we packed up, got a brit and an aussie that wanted to head out too, and made our way to marakech. we found a cheap place to stay, then went out into the mob scene. it was a friday night...or maybe saturday, i forget, but it was busy. i have pics but ill get them on here later. but the basic ideq of ,arrakech is that its busy and lots of people bug you to buy stuff or pay them if you take a picture. so the aussie and brit headed north to do some trekking and francis, dominic, and i headed east to the desert.
stayed one night in ouarzazate looking for some info on a camel trek in the sahara. turned out that its cheaper to go right to the startoff point to avoid any middlemen, so off we went. a litttle little town called mhamid. and everyone hasled us for a camel trek. all bad,outhing the next guys business. so we weeded out a good one and took off the next morning.
got 2 18 year olds as our guides. and 3 camels, but 2 were carrying all the gear. water, food, tent, etc. so we got to share one for riding. fun. i thought it was silly at first cuz we werre just tourists paying to walk in the desrt for 2 days. but it was actuqlly kinda nice. the boys made all the meals when we stopped and they were pretty good. we would walk and camel for a couple hours after breakfqst, eat lunch, nap, then walk one or 2 more hours to camp. spent the first night outside under the stars. gets really really cold in the desert at night. couldnt believe it. then the second night, the boys set up the tent, it fell over, then they set it up again. we were pretty sure it would fall over again...we were right. about 11 or 12 pm, down it came right on us after a big gust of wind. and of course it was raining too. could hardly see anything for all the sand blowing in your face. so we slept thqt night under a fallen tent. cold cold cold. woke up early and walkezd back to town in a lot of wind. so it was an adventure.
we drove back to taghazoute over 2 days taking our time. and of course theres no swell and none froecasted for like 4 days. and not too big either, so were striking out in the wave depqrtment here. might check a spot south of here that could pick up the swell better, but were at a loss for what to do with ourselves. so well see what happens in the future. kinda fickle here i guess or just a slow wave season thus far. could pick up later, who knows. ill get those pics up here sometime soon for you all.