Sahara Desert

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Another early start- we metnup for breakfast at 7:30, then headed out. Before continuing the drive to the desert, we stopped at a gorge, which has a beautiful trail running through a lush, fertile area, where there are some crops planted. After the walk through, we went to a cooperative, where locsl women make rugs. We were shown the steps of preparing the fleece and spinning it into wool, which is then woven into rugs. They were intricate ans lovely, but nobody in our group had the money or the space to carry around a rug with them.
More driving, then a lunch stop, then more driving. We finally reached the edge of the desert around 4:30. We had a bit of time to relax, charge electronics, use the bathrooms etc, before heading out on camel.
Monica decided to just walk- I think she made a good choice 😊 Now I've had the experience of riding a camel, I don't think I need to repeat it! There were several camels tied together in a row, so that the head of the camel behind you was very close to your butt. My camel was pretty mellow, but the one behind me was ornery, and I was a little worried I might get a bite on the butt! Fortunately that didn't happen, the ride was fairly uneventful. We headed into the desert, then stopped and got down just before sunset so we could take some photos. Then we got back on and headed to the campsite.
It's a permanent camp site, with tents arranged in kind of a rectangle, with a firepit and socializing area in the middle. The side tents have tables and chairs for eating (we had dinner there), and then there are several shared tents for sleeping, with beds in them. There's a bit of electric, for lighting, and 2 toilets for the camp (which were unfortunately right next to our tent!).
There were probably about 60-80 people there, from several different tour groups. Our bus group had 18 people, which basically divided into 2 subgroupings: 10 Portuguese traveling together, and then the non-Portuguese: 2 Italians, 2 French, 2 Americans (1 was part-Egyptian), and us 2 Canadians. The Italians had split off from us when we stopped at the edge of the desert, apparently to go to a fancier desert camp, so it was just Jean Michel, Karine, Becca and Hesham, and Monica and I. We had fun visiting with them. After dinner, we sat to listen to the desert guides play music. Then we headed to bed sometime after 10, as we were supposed to meet the next morning at 6:30am to go watch the sunrise.

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