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Field Trip to the East Desert

Our field trip, led by Gian Ori, took us eastward into Morocco, to see some features of planetary interest. We drove over the Atlas Mountains on a high, windy pass, dropped down into the Ourzazoud basin, through the town, past it to some amazing stromatolite deposits, then back into town again, then east towards Boumalne Dades town, stayed the night in a nice Kasbah Tizzaouine up on a hillside overlooking an agricultural town. The next day, we ended in Merzouga where we were to have stayed in Bedouin tents, but a sand storm had just started so we stayed in an auberge right on the edge of the Erg Chebbi. The theme of this field trip was WIND - we saw some magnificent wind storms and experienced being out in it. We drove to some mud volcanoes in Devonian limestone, really giant features, and walked up onto them, all around them, thinking about their origin and preservation. Lots of fossils all day – those long white chambered nautilus, crinoids, clams and trilobites! We then stayed in Erfoud. This day was a circuit of the giant Erg Chebbi. We started in the north, looked at small dome and barchan dunes at the fringes of the sand sea, then went around to the east. Here the sand gradually approaches the sand sea, so there is a long patch of sand sheet before reaching dunes. I wanted to hike from here, but it would have been quite a few hours. We ate lunch, did some fun offroad driving through the sand sheet and some wadis and then made our way south around the Erg. On the west, the large star dunes come right to the edge of the sand sea, so we could park close to the largest star to hike it. We began hiking about 3 pm, so just a few of us summited. It was a fantastic field trip, and we saw many unique landscapes!