Beware the camels of Zagora

Every now and then (especially when the boss is away in Ireland) I cruise the internet looking for unusual stories about Morocco. Having not much luck this week, I was somewhat pleased to discover the homely column by Bob Morgan Jr who writes in the strange little New York journal The Garden City News. His articles come out under the heading The View from Here...

Bob Junior's latest piece is about a trip to Morocco and a short journey on a camel...

At Zagora, each of the seven of us on the tour got on a camel for the 2 1/2 hour trek to a campgrounds in the desert. Our two guides, both Berbers from the surrounding region, served us a traditional meal of Moroccan tagine, and even improvised a show of traditional music. When it was time to turn in, the tent lodging actually proved pretty good, with numerous blankets sheltering us from the cold night.

Unfortunately, however, the return trip from the campground, also a 2 1/2 hour journey, proved to be my undoing. While I was a little sore from the trip to the campgrounds, somehow my thigh muscles completely locked up on the way back. By the time I got off the beast at Zagora, I could barely walk and I have been hobbling ever since, with only a very slight improvement in the last 24 hours.

Yes, I see the humor (and believe me, so does Robert) of getting injured by a placid creature that rarely goes faster than five miles an hour, but my thigh still hurts.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news