Today started off with a relaxing morning. Our first scheduled activity was not until 1:00pm, so we slept a little later than usual and had a late and large breakfast at the hotel. As the forecast was for nice weather, we were hoping to sit on our patio or even going swimming in the pool. But it was overcast, and although the temperature was comfortable, it was not inviting. So we hung out in the room, I worked on my pictures and the blog, and Sally did some reading.

At 1:00 Kamal picked us up to go meet our driver for a sidecar tour of Marrakech. We had done this kind of activity in Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) back in 2019, during our last trip. That bike was a big, heavy Russian one that seemed oversized in a city buzzing with billions of little motorbikes. This sleeker model fit in pretty well here. Motorbikes are increasingly popular due to the development of very inexpensive imports from China; you can buy an entry-level Docker brand bike with a 1/2 liter engine for about $400. This sidecar bike is the product of a joint venture between a Chinese and French company.

Unfortunately, the sidecar itself only seats one and Sally got that seat. I rode behind Amile, hanging on to a small handle between my legs and also bracing myself by grabbing the luggage rack on the trunk of the sidecar. This left no hands for manipulating my camera, so I periodically let go of the luggage rack and operated the camera with one hand. Which explains why I’ve been deleting most of the pictures I took during this 90 minute ride – they were out of focus, pointed at the ground or sky, blurred from shaking, etc. But I did get a few keepers as we rode around the newer part of Marrakech, through the Palm Grove and then back into a different part of the Medina than we had seen the day before.

I have a long history of difficulty finding hat. Helmets are even worse, as they are by their nature rigid. Whenever I need to use a helmet supplied by someone else, they never have one that fits. By the end of the ride I had a deep dent going across my forehead. And I’m pretty sure the helmet wouldn’t have done any good if I needed it.

We got back to the hotel with about an hour to get ready for our Dinner in the Desert with Dancing. The deal here is you drive about 30 miles east to the Agafay desert. The first 25 miles are on a decent road. The last 5 miles are on an almost-road. The road is two lanes, but there’s only one lane’s worth of pavement. So our driver had to continuously slow down and pull half off the pavement to let oncoming traffic past (they had to do the same). This last 5 miles took almost 30 minutes.

This area is home to a number of recreational activities. You can ride a camel, ride an Quad bike, ride an ATV, stay overnight in a Berber-esque tent, have dinner under the stars with traditional entertainment, etc. All supposed to give you a taste of what Berber life was like, if you were a rich Berber and had an ATV that cost more than your annual income. It is just like all of the other folkloric or native experiences you can see around the world: hula dancers in Hawaii, Bushman cooking dinner in South Africa, a blacksmith working in Colonial WIlliamsburg. I think they all need to be taken for what they are: entertainment that might or might not actually reflect some past reality.

We booked a private dinner with a full suite of entertainment. Upon arriving at the site, we were escorted to our private tent. A woman was sitting out in front, but I have no idea what she was doing – she never spoke to us, and left after a short while. But I did take her picture.

Our waiter, Said, was an engaging young-ish man who said he was going to law school in Marrakech. He entertained us with skills like pouring the tea and trying to teach us a few words of Berber (1).

There was a two piece band, a stringed lute-like instrument, hand cymbals, dance and voice. They sang us in when we arrived, played for us by our tent a couple of times, then came back after the last act for an encore.

As I said earlier, we had a private tent, just the two of us (and Said). A very large table held all of the food that was delivered over a couple of hours.

While we were eating a belly dancer came by to entertain us. She danced just outside the tent; Sally thought that she was very inexperienced – like you could see her trying to remember the next move. I just thought she wasn’t very good. And she danced after it was dark with no added light other than what was spilling out of the tent. So I didn’t even try to take a picture.

The penultimate act was a fire dancer. This guy was the boss. He swung his burning torches at the end of chains around through the darkness, switching torches to create different effects. He danced for a while right in front of the tent, and then we moved down to another seating are that was part of our private compound and he did some more with torches and chains that were even more spectacular. I took a couple of hundred shots, about half of which didn’t come out as it was dark and he was moving very fast (2). But I captured enough to give you an idea of what he did.

Finally the band came back for a couple of numbers. Then, sadly, it was time to go home.

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(1) We failed miserably. We couldn’t remember how to say “thank you” for more than 30 seconds (the answer is tanmert).

(2) This is a vast improvement over what I experienced trying to capture fire dancers with my Olympus gear in Havana almost five years ago. There, the yield was 0% – not a single picture came out.