October 18
It felt very odd to walk along with skis on my shoulder and ski boots in my hand while wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but that’s what I did last week when our family skied the dunes in Merzouga.
The day before we left, after the kids finished their schoolwork, I inspected the equipment stored against a wall outside our hotel. There were only two pairs of very old boots covered in sand. I grabbed the smaller pair and began to dump out the sand so I could try them on. What looked like a large grey rag dropped out of the boot. It wasn’t a rag. It was a toad. What’s more, it was alive.
As I peered down at this unlikely desert creature, one of the four brothers who own and run the hotel appeared on the terrace. He was delighted that we planned to try skiing but wanted to know if we would like some tea first. Everything is an occasion for drinking mint tea in Morocco. Some call it Berber whiskey. The frequent pictures of the king hanging everywhere often show him drinking tea. After another inspection of the equipment by all the members of the family we all sat on the terrace for a glass of tea with Ali. It was a good excuse to let the hot sun drop a little further in the sky.
Soon, we were on our way with the toad boots and two pairs of skis. The only pair that fit my boots was a child’s size with about 10 cm missing off the tail. Perhaps it broke off in some previous dune mishap.
We walked behind a caravan of camels heading out to the desert with a fresh set of tourists. We walked past the women at the well filling plastic bottles to load onto their trusty little donkey waiting patiently nearby.
We had a blast trying to make it in one piece down the hill. Bjorn and Emma sat on the skis and used them as sleds while Mitch tried standing in the bindings with his sandals. Hid style reminded me of our early days skiing together. But I’ll let the video tell the story.
We walked back to the hotel with smiles on our faces and pockets full of sand as the sun set behind the mountains.
– Margit
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