After a restful night at our casbah-esque hotel, we are going to explore the desert on ATVs! The tundra around here is very different than the pillowy hills of sand we were just in. Dry and arid, but rocky and dusty…with no camels to be seen. Fortunately we will have time to come back and shower before checking out, as we know the ATV adventure will be a dirty one.

A quick drive to our launching point, and the three guides get us all suited up – which really means fitted for a helmet and goggles (and a ridiculous blue hair protector that admittedly does make the helmet go on more easily). A quick lesson on controls, and we’re off!

We ride single-file toward the wide-open vista, attempting to stay out of each others’ dirt clouds and keep up with our leader. Once we get the hang of it, we are blazing along! A short stint on the main road – in spite of the warning sticker on the ATV not to use it on paved roads – and we were in the hills, cruising along to amazing views. It is just incredible, if not classically “beautiful,” but you can see so far into the horizon. And we’re having a fun time doing it, chasing each other up and down the low hills, hootin’ and hollerin’ along the way. At one point, there was no civilization to be seen across the desolate landscape…

After a few photo-op stops and picking up a baby goat that had lost its way (seriously!), we were back at the beginning, and saying farewell to our ATV team. With wide smiles, we piled into the van and went to shower off the layer of dirt that has settled over everything.

Clean and ready to roll, we bid adieu to our oasis accommodations, headed for Marrakech. We had planned a stop at Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO world heritage site, but they are filming Gladiator 2 and much of it is not accessible, so we opted out. We get to see it from across the canyon, while doing a little shopping with the hillside merchants.

The drive to Marrakech through winding mountain passes was rather uneventful, and while there was a flash of culture shock arriving in the city, we’ll just fast forward through all that. We’ll also skip the check-in fiasco, as entertaining as the story might be. Settled in, we had dinner at the hotel and went early to bed so we could be up before the sun (“whaaattt??!!”).

It’s still dark at 5 am, of course, when the alarm goes off. Are we really doing this?! Yes! Some things are just worth doing at sunrise (the Taj Mahal is one of them – there’s an old DR&HR post about that here), and a hot air balloon over Marrakech seems to be on that list. Barely awake and with no coffee to assist with the eye opening (restaurant doesn’t open til 6), we quietly cram into the two SUVs that will take us out to the balloon field.

After a quiet 30 min drive we are warmly greeted by the ballooners, and escorted into the waiting tent, dimly lit by balloon-shaped lighting. Along with the other sleepy folks, we queue up for some coffee and breakfast, the anticipation building as take-off approaches. We are all starting to come to life, as mother earth does the same and the sky lightens.

There are many balloon companies in the area, so the sky will be speckled with them as the sun peeks over the horizon. Moroccan Sky Ballooning has two, and they are amazing. And just enormous! Until you are up close to these monsters, you really don’t have a sense of how big they are. And what they can carry – up to 15 passengers plus crew! We thought it was going to be maybe four or six per ballon, but nope – ours had all nine of us and five others. 

We’re now awake and engaged in watching how this all happens, the clear blue sky and nonexistent breeze hinting of what’s to come. The balloons are first filled with air using two giant fans, the basket on its side…

Partially inflated, the fans are pulled aside and the flames begin to heat the air trapped in the balloon. It’s louder than you’d think, the fire breathing life into what was once a pile of nylon, and the buoyancy begins…the balloon lifts off the ground and rights the basket as it rises, the entire thing anchored by a rope simply tethered to an SUV (ummm…really? “…just tie it to the car, it’ll be fine.”).

Fully inflated, ready to go and held down thanks to a heavy Toyota, we all climb into the basket. A bit of unspoken trepidation could be felt among us newbies as the anchoring rope is released with a snap and we…float… Slowly, gently. Quietly but for the whoosh of the flame. Mostly straight up, a bit to the side, gliding in whatever direction the whisper of a breeze takes us.

The pilot explains he cannot control the direction, but he can make the balloon rotate by opening or closing the vents at the top. Not sure if this is supposed to make us more or less comfortable? He’s been doing this for 15 years and logged thousands of flights, so as we go higher, a calm sets in.

We can see others getting aloft, and soon the sky is dotted with balloons, the sun finally showing over the hills in the distance. It is a breathtaking backdrop to a beautiful spectacle, the Atlas Mountains lending a timeless feel as we go higher and higher. Cresting at about 2,500 feet, we are over an unpopulated area (of course), only an occasional scattering of beehives breaking up the brown rocky expanse. For about 45 minutes, we simply enjoy the early morning sky that blankets the quiet landscape, the silence occasionally broken by the flame shooting into the balloon.

As we start to descend – clearly we are going down, but so slowly it’s hardly perceptible – we all wonder about how this landing is going to work. They explained it early on, but we weren’t really paying attention. It is, essentially, an orchestrated crash landing. We are instructed – not yet, but when told to – that we will crouch down into the basket and hold on. The pilot will attempt to have the basket hit the ground on one corner (slows us down), go up a bit, then come down again for a landing. One of us managed to capture it on video:

Amazingly, this happens perfectly, and the basket even lands upright! It is not moments later that the ground crew is on site (they have followed along as we were in the air), deflating the ballon and rolling it up to transport. 

Wow! That was SO cool…just floating…the flame keeping us high in the air…the quiet…the views that have no end. Most of us would absolutely do this again (although it would be better if there was more to see below us, frankly). A couple on the ride said they had done it in Turkey and it was amazing. Albuquerque anyone?

A brief return to balloon home-base, chattering along the way about this incredible experience, and soon we were back at the hotel, ready to begin exploring Marrakech. After going around the world in 80 days, what would this mysterious city serve up next?