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Published: February 13th 2012
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Trust in Allah but tie up your camel. (anonymous)
Bending down on his front knees, lingering, and then slowly onto back knees, it seemed a huge effort. I scrambled clumsily onto his back and with a grunt he hoisted himself to his feet. The three camels were tied to each other; Kathy was on the first, who was obviously the boss and very amorous, I on the meek second one and Natarsha on the happy third. Natarsha insists that we name our camels: Kathy generously calls hers ‘snorter’, I call mine ‘Cassie’ (but find out later that it is a boy, so Cassie becomes ‘Cassie the Tranny’), and Natarsha christens hers ‘Casper the friendly Camel’. We are the only people on this trek other than Yousef our guide, who was also our cook, musician and camel leader.
We are camping amongst the dunes of the Sahara desert for the night. It is 3 in the evening and we are to travel for 2 hours before we reach our camp. We climb up and down endless dune after endless dune, gradually ascending the entire time. The never-ending sand stretches out in front of us all the way
to the Algerian border 80kms away and beyond. Far below us is Merzouga, the Berber village in which we are staying. Don’t worry! It is not some dingy, mud walled room we are staying in but a five star palace.
The wind is unforgiving. The sand is constantly shifting, erasing our tracks as fast as we move. Nothing seems to stay the same in this ever changing landscape. The colours, the shapes, the shadows, continuously changing in front of our eyes.
When you think of the desert you think of heat. This could not be further from the truth. It is cold, bitterly cold. I have a singlet, three shirts, jumper and coat on. My head is covered with a beanie, turban and coat hood. I cannot feel my fingers or my toes. I hope desperately that our accommodation is five star.
Climbing the last dune before our camp, our friend suggests we alight and climb the nearby hill of sand for that great sunset photo. It looks to be quite an easy walk, but looks can be deceiving. It takes a good half an hour for us to scramble, bog and crawl our way to the top. The
wind up here is ferocious, impossibly more so than what it had been before, wildly whipping the sand against us. The view though is to die for, and I daresay worth it.
Clambering down the other side of this (what at this point seems colossal) dune, we get our first glimpse of our camp. It is not exactly five star opulence. A Berber tent about 5 by 20 metres. Arriving, Yousef welcomes us to our humble abode. There are five stretcher beds and a table with a burning candle. Mint tea has been served. The walls are covered in Berber rugs to protect us from the whistling winds. There are no windows. The toilet is whichever sand dune you desire. Kathy is extremely anxious that there are no blankets on the beds and when we ask the only answer we get is “good, everything good”. Yousef does not seem to have a great grasp of the English language but is very happy and always smiling.
Dinner is served, cold vegetables (which Yousef calls ‘salad’) and barbecued chicken, cooked over a small fire, which we huddle around somewhat urgently. Afterwards, Yousef entertains us with music and stories.
It is time to
hit the sack and to Kathy’s great relief Berber blankets are produced.
“How many?” Yousef asks.
“4 each!” Kathy replies, instantly and forcefully. He laughs.
In almost total darkness, we cuddle up under our blankets, with the wind roaring outside, it reminds me of how it would be for Scott or one of the other great Pole explorers.
Yousef wakes us at 6am for our ride back. It is a magnificent sunrise over the dunes as we ride our ships of the sand home. Shades of pink, yellow, orange and red create a myriad of colours. Kathy describes the view as breathtaking, Natarsha says she was too busy holding onto her camel. Arriving back, we are bum sore and frozen, but hey, we rode across the Sahara Desert, on camels, by ourselves. What an amazing experience.
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Maree Stewart
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WOW!!! AMAZING!!
Hi Browns...WOW!! what an amazing experience, riding thru the Sahara on camels & camping overnight!!!...hard to believe, lucky there are photos to prove it!! Thoroughly enjoying following your holiday adventures, great blogging & photos! Take care & safe travelling xox from the Stewarts