Why Morocco 011 – Michelle Fletcher on slow travel and building a sand castle in the Sahara Desert

On this week’s episode I traveled to the Sahara Desert to visit fellow Canadian Michelle Fletcher and her partner Kamal Yassine at their sand castle – Kasbah Ait Isfoul – on the edge of Erg Chegaga, a rather untouched area of the Sahara Desert. Michelle and Kamal have spent the last year and a half restoring and renovating a kasbah originally built by Kamal’s grandfather.

I had the pleasure of staying in one of the newly renovated suites and woke up each day to the sun rising over the sand dunes and nearby village of Ait Isfoul. After coffee with a view, Michelle and I spent the days wandering through the communities, heading to the weekly souk, and just enjoying the quiet and the simplicity of life in this part of Morocco. As always with my trips to the desert, I stayed longer than originally planned, just totally mesmerized by local life, the slow pace and beauty of the Sahara.

Listen in as Michelle and I chat about building a sandcastle in a big sandbox, slow travel and slow living and what we’ve learned since moving here.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @mandyinmorocco.

My other projects include:

• Tasting Marrakech food and cultural tours in Marrakech tasting-marrakech.com
• A boutique PR agency that works with brands based in Morocco seeking to reach international audiences or those seeking to break in to the Moroccan market saysomethingcommunication.com
• Freelance writing for print and digital  mandyinmorocco.com/freelance-writing/
• And the little blog called Why Morocco that started back in 2010 when I decided to swap public employee life to pursue life in Marrakech mandyinmorocco.com.