The desert’s invitation
My parents are African but I grew up in Canada, at times dreaming of far away places but mostly just grateful for summers spent paddling lakes, winters skiing ice, and weekends in hockey arenas all over Ontario. The travel bug bit me hard in my late teens, and by 20 I was working in the travel industry. In 1998 I took my first steps on the African continent – though not on my parents’ South African soil in but rather in the far north – 2 full seasons guiding bike trips through the kaleidoscope that is Morocco.
Bohemian by nature with a ponytail braided down my back, mutton-chop sideburns, my wrists and neck already festooned with chunky silver jewellery, I immediately fell madly in love with Morocco. I read Paul Bowles, learned kindergarten Arabic, became entranced with gnawa music and learned to bargain like a berber (or so I was told). But it was the desert that always hit a little deeper, with it’s cleansing power, a feeling best captured by the author Rebecca Solnit:
“It wasn’t particular things but the space between them, that abundance of absence, that is the desert’s invitation. There the geology that underlies lusher landscapes is exposed to the eye, and this gives it a skeletal elegance, just as its harsh conditions—the vast distances between water, the many dangers, the extremes of heat and cold—keep you in mind of your mortality.”
Almost 30 years later and Morocco still calls to me, and everyone in my orbit. All three Trufflepig founders spent formative years there in our 20’s, having our minds blown and our characters forged. We quickly bonded over our shared love of its landscapes and humanity, and Morocco featured prominently in our earliest portfolio of trips. We met our legendary Morocco planner Sebastian at the dar he owned and operated in Fez, and he’s been with us now more than a decade. We took our whole team to Morocco in 2023 to celebrate all we had endured together through COVID. Nothing heals like a night in the Sahara listening to live desert blues while flames from the bonfire lick at the impossible stars overhead. I’ve since fallen for many deserts over the years, but Morocco will always be my first love.
