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 MEET ALI

Marhaba!  Welcome!  

I am Ali Mouni and I welcome you to Morocco.  I hope that one day I will be able to greet you in person and show you the peace and beauty of my country.

I was born in Merzouga, a small Berber village in the Sahara.  To get to Merzouga you must drive across the flat open desert where there is no road.  There is nothing to tell a stranger which way he is driving until he sees the Erg Chebbi, the largest sand dunes in Morocco.  The beauty of the dunes makes our small oasis unique and brings visitors from all over the world who want to share our life if only for a few hours.

I have been guiding tourists since I was a small boy and I would go out early in the morning and take the hand of someone who was having a hard time climbing up the dunes to watch the sunrise.  Not only did I earn a little money, but in time I learned to speak the language of these visitors.  So that now I can speak Spanish, German, English, and, of course, Berber, Moroccan Arabic and French.

My brother and I have several camels and we use them to take visitors on camel tours or just for a 3 hour camel trek into the dunes for a night at a small oasis.  For many people who are visiting the desert for the first time,  a camel trek is like a dream come true.  For us, this is a chance to show our guests true desert hospitality.

For a few years I have been driving the Land Rover 4x4, taking tourists to places they have read about, but maybe don't find on a tour.  With the Land Rover, we can visit places where normally we would have to walk, bicycle or ride a donkey to visit.

Sometimes people have their trip already planned because they know a little bit about Morocco.  Sometimes people tell me what they are interested in--maybe festivals, fossil hunting or photography and together we talk about the  best places to go to see or do these things.  Or maybe they just tell me how many days they have to spend in Morocco and that they want to see as much as possible.

I have worked with film companies, photographers, writers, the Marathon des Sables, and the crew for the visit of Hillary Clinton. (My brother, Hassan, was chosen to be the handler for Madam Clinton's camel.)  I have worked with many tour companies arranging camel treks and bivouacs with folk lore entertainment.

Whatever you want to do on your holiday, we consider you our guest and we will try our best to make your time in Morocco the best holiday you have ever had.

Read Letters to Ali written by Ali's clients

Ali's Nomad Palace is recommended in Rough Guide and Cadogen's

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