The Great Sahara

i went Morrocco for a month visited over 12 different cities, then it was over, it felt like a dream.

We went on a tour with a camel ride in the dunes at sunset and then spent the night at a berber camp sleeping under the stars. Amazing.

My favorite place on Earth so far.

I just got back from a month long trip around Morroco. I spend 3 days in Merzouga, and did a great overnight trip into the Sahara. We wanted to do a 2-day trip, but because of the sandstorms and the summer heat, the auberge (Chez Julia) recommended just a 1-day trip. We joined up with 2 other travelers. The camel ride was about 2 hours each way, and left me incredibly sore. There was time in the evening for climbing up the dunes to watch the sunset, though the wind was so strong that I didn’t make it to the top.

We had a fantastic chicken tagine dinner and watched the 20 someodd feral cats that lived at the camp site. After dinner, we climbed up a dune to watch the starts and drum with some of the Berbers from the campsite. The star watching is amazing, there is only a small amount of light visible at the horizon that gets in the way. You could sleep either at the campsite or under the stars.

i wanna race my paint colt across the sahara desert in the 8 mile race !

I went to Merzouga in November 2004 by car, which is at the edge of the Sahara, and took a camel from there out into the Sahara to the Erg Chebbi. I would definitely go again. It took about 2 hours of camel riding, just me and my camel guide, after sunset, to get to the great Erg. The night sky in the Sahara was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. You could see a million stars, the Southern Cross, the Milky Way and the Clouds of Magellan. Wow.

It was darned cold at night, as you might expect. I camped overnight and watched the sunrise over the desert. Afterwards, I had a great breakfast with the few Bedouins who run the campsite. The food out there (dinner & breakfast) was just amazing, and I don’t know how they did it. Some of the best food I had in Morocco, actually. Fresh bread, excellent chicken & vegetable tagine, dates to die for, unpasteurized butter and fresh milk…Ummm!

The desert is very strangely quiet, especially at night, and the sand is beautiful copper color at times, dun color at others. The Erg is hundreds of feet high (and 40 KM long!) and the big dunes go on seemingly forever. Climbing up the sand ridge to watch the sunrise was not easy, but it was do-able. Bring water, camp clothes and a hat & sunglasses. And a camera is a must. If I could do it again, I’d try to find a way to photograph the multitude of stars I saw.

Camel riding can be is unpleasant, especially when the camel rises up from a sitting position with you on him (hold on tight then). My camel driver recommended a sort of side-saddle position with one leg tucked up on top of the camel and a sitting stance slightly turned to one side, as though looking off into the distance in a 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock direction. This helped a lot.

I visited the Sahara last summer and did a camel trek from Merzouga – next time I hope to camp and sleep under the stars in the great Sahara!