On our last day in Merzouga, Rachel and I rented a motorcycle for an afternoon. We both had ridden previously but it had been awhile for us both. The desert seemed like the perfect place to try again.
Boy, did we have a fun day.
The rental place only had a very old motorcycle available, which needed to be pedaled like a bicycle to start, but it was an absolute blast. We couldn’t ride on the dunes because the motorcycle would sink into the sand, but there is plenty of flat desert around the town that we got to explore.
It was great and so empowering.
At one point, we stopped to switch drivers and a group of children gathered to watch us as we struggled to get the bike started. Eventually they asked for a ride and started climbing on! (Unfortunately we lost the pictures of this, but it was adorable.)
It was quite the experience as I drove them very carefully around in a small circle one at a time, trying to keep track of who had already ridden and who hadn’t. I was sure that some Moroccan man was going to appear any minute and yell at us, but none ever materialized.
(Rachel McCoy Photography)
It was the first real interaction I had with children in Morocco and it was refreshing. I had been wondering why I didn’t see children running around and playing here. I did see boys out playing soccer, especially on Sundays, but never the kind of carefree playing that I had seen elsewhere. And I almost never saw a girl out playing before this day.
Eventually, things got out of hand as they all started trying to cram on at once, which significantly increased the chances of someone falling off.
We ended up having to make a quick getaway from a small mob of children! (Which was difficult because of the aforementioned difficulties of quickly starting the motorcycle.)
But it was fun and we laughed a lot.
(Rachel McCoy Photography)
Happy New Year everyone!!
There Is Hope Here 