August 30, 2013
After meeting with several people to secure a good quantity of pure argan oil and honey from hives dotted in between the trees we came across an intersection with an arrow pointing west to Iftane Plage 18km. It was August in Marocco, so water and ocean breezes seemed like a good idea. The road quickly lost its paved smoothness and soon turned to rocks and dust, but the landscape was something from another world. These ancient argan trees that were twisted and burned by the wind and sand heat for centuries stood in a placid calmness.
The road kept winding and climbing and soon in the far off distance we finally saw the blue of the ocean, when we realized we were surrounded by a huge herd of camels eating the argan nuts right off the trees. They were sort of camouflaged in the trees and we started loosing count, at which we saw their owner perched on a rock taking in the view.
His skin was bronze and shiny and he had teeth that were white like pearls, and he dressed like you would expect someone who had 50 camels to look after with white scarves and a tall walking stick. He told us he was from south side of the Saraha desert and that every summer he crossed the sands to come and let the camels eat the argan nuts and escape the desert heat.
We told him we were in search of pure honey- that was the the product of bees left to their own devices without feeding them sugar or moving them from place to place. But more importantly we had been out all day and we were hungry- so he pointed with his stick to fishing boats pulled up on the shore with the neatly stacked lobster traps and said follow me- first we eat and then we can talk about the honey….