A Night in the Sahara

Dromedaries- I'm the second shadow to the left

Spent the night before our Saharan adventure in Erfoud. It's a little warm out there, so we didn't set out for the desert until late afternoon. Before meeting our Tuareg guides, we had lunch with these lovely men. They sang us songs and fed us and gave us lots and lots of tea (a common theme). 

Blue man music

 We met at a group of 4x4s afterwards to dive on in. We sped through pre-dune desert land before finding the dromedaries (one hump, not two...but camel is easier to type, so I'll say that) that were to take us our to the camp in the dunes.

Speeding through the desert

 We rode our beasts for 1-2 hours into the dunes. The sun setting slowly behind us and the desert wind picking up. We arrived at our camp just in time for the guides to shout, "Run! Run! You have to see sunset from atop that dune!" Only one person I believe actually succeeded in seeing it. Climbing that monstrosity was quite a physical feat and I only got about half way up. I was determined but my heart was telling me to stop. So I perched myself on the side of the dune and enjoyed the still pretty spectacular view.

Dromedaries 

My saddle

The dunes

We laughed and ate all together in the camps before splitting up for various activities. Some went off and listened to a drum circle happening in a camp next door, others talked around the dinner table, and I went off into the dunes with friends to lie and watch the stars. Definitely clear and bright like I've never really seen before. I don't know how long we sat out there, but we stayed until the moon rose and we played with the shadows of the moonlight before going to sleep on small pads under these same stars.

Our camp

We woke up nice and early to catch the sunrise. Perched again on the side of a dune and wrapped in sleep, blankets, and scarves, we watched together. And like that our time in the Sahara was over. We were back on the camels after breakfast and in our bus again three hours later.

Sunset dunes in the wind