The Sahara is a completely alien, otherworldy place at night. Our guide Hassan was amazing. He led us to the camp practically in complete darkness and to me it felt like we were just going around in circles but we made it to the camp eventually. You can see the stars so well when there are no lights around and the only sound is the wind whistling over the dunes. It' such a bizarre feeling to know that you're alone for miles around except for two camels and your companions. (Photo: my camel Herbush)
After a dinner of tajin, which took almost 2 hours to cook (we'd eaten a banana for breakfast and nothing else that day- I was so hungry I was considering cannibalism) Hassan took us for a walk up the dunes. In the darkness they just look like tiny hills but they're seriously impossible to climb up. It's not so bad at first but towards the top, when the sand is softer, you keep sinking and you have to practically run to stop from sliding back down. And they're unbelievably steep. Lisa gave up after half an hour, but I kept going and when we reached the top, we could see the border between Morocco and Algeria. The moon was rising behind a dune and that was the only light we had. (Photo: Lisa struggling up the dunes hee hee hahahahahaha)
The next morning, we watched the sunrise, then trekked back to the hotel in Merzouga where we'd started from. Abdellah, the guy who picked us up from Rissani drove us back, gave us a tour of the town and made us Moroccan pizza for lunch. He was the coolest guy imaginable. He wore this brown cloak with a pointed hood (a bit like the KKK) and looked like Chewbacca from Star Wars. Well, until you saw his face because he's human, obviously. But that was mostly hidden by the hood. We caught a 6 pm bus from Rissani to Tangier that took 14 hours to arrive. But this time the bus was normal, with heating, unlike the other one that was so old and rickety it was held together with string in some parts and had a guy to wipe the windows down every now and then because the windscreen wipers were broken and the windscreen kept getting covered in snow and dust. Also, on that bus the windows didn't shut properly, so when we drove through the mountains, I'd fall asleep and wake up with a coating of snow on me. (Photo: Lisa with her camel. She was scared of it so wouldn't stand next to it when I took the photo. She sort of edged towards it, then leant in a little. Hassan said he was an agressive camel)
The Sahara is a completely alien, otherworldy place at night. Our guide Hassan was amazing. He led us to the camp practically in complete darkness and to me it felt like we were just going around in circles but we made it to the camp eventually. You can see the stars so well when there are no lights around and the only sound is the wind whistling over the dunes. It' such a bizarre feeling to know that you're alone for miles around except for two camels and your companions. (Photo: my camel Herbush)
After a dinner of tajin, which took almost 2 hours to cook (we'd eaten a banana for breakfast and nothing else that day- I was so hungry I was considering cannibalism) Hassan took us for a walk up the dunes. In the darkness they just look like tiny hills but they're seriously impossible to climb up. It's not so bad at first but towards the top, when the sand is softer, you keep sinking and you have to practically run to stop from sliding back down. And they're unbelievably steep. Lisa gave up after half an hour, but I kept going and when we reached the top, we could see the border between Morocco and Algeria. The moon was rising behind a dune and that was the only light we had. (Photo: Lisa struggling up the dunes hee hee hahahahahaha)
The next morning, we watched the sunrise, then trekked back to the hotel in Merzouga where we'd started from. Abdellah, the guy who picked us up from Rissani drove us back, gave us a tour of the town and made us Moroccan pizza for lunch. He was the coolest guy imaginable. He wore this brown cloak with a pointed hood (a bit like the KKK) and looked like Chewbacca from Star Wars. Well, until you saw his face because he's human, obviously. But that was mostly hidden by the hood. We caught a 6 pm bus from Rissani to Tangier that took 14 hours to arrive. But this time the bus was normal, with heating, unlike the other one that was so old and rickety it was held together with string in some parts and had a guy to wipe the windows down every now and then because the windscreen wipers were broken and the windscreen kept getting covered in snow and dust. Also, on that bus the windows didn't shut properly, so when we drove through the mountains, I'd fall asleep and wake up with a coating of snow on me. (Photo: Lisa with her camel. She was scared of it so wouldn't stand next to it when I took the photo. She sort of edged towards it, then leant in a little. Hassan said he was an agressive camel)
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