Ships of the Desert

Our day in the desert finally arrived! After a long drive from Ouarzazat we made it to Erfroud, a town on the edge of the Sahara. We met our camel guide Hamid and he introduced us to our camels. We got on and held on tight as they see-sawed back and forth to stand. It felt a bit like a horse but the neck and head are so far away! Our little caravan of 4 then walked into the dunes. Hamid had to walk because apparently a camel will not go if you are not leading. We found that to be true with Emily’s camel. Part way into our ride Emily’s camel’s rope came undone. She was at the back and no one noticed that her camel just stopped.
We just heard this little voice say, “Daddy!” and saw her a ways back. It was really funny! The desert was amazingly beautiful. The deep blue sky, graceful dunes, bits of green grass and the silence was awe inspiring. Having been in busy cities for a week the silence was wonderful. But it wasn’t completely silent because there were camels. I’ve never known an animal to burp so much and so often! I’ve had horses for years and can’t remember a horse belching once. We giggled a lot as our camels took turns out doing each other. We stopped for a few minutes to watch the sunset and play a bit in the sand. As soon as the sun went down the temperature dropped dramatically. We then rode for about half and hour more to reach our Berber village. After stowing our bags in the tents Hamdi explained with a wave of his had that the bathroom was the desert. There was one bush…and it was none to big! The girls decided that they would wait until we got back the next day. Hamdi sent us to sit in the tent while he got Berber tea (or whiskey) ready for us. It is very strong tea with a ton of sugar. We sat and talked for a bit, drank tea and ate peanuts until he came with supper. He made us Tagien with chicken and I have to say it was the best we’d had so far. After dessert of oranges and apple we went out to watch the stars. I’ve never seen so many! The sky was almost white with them. The night was cool so we put on our long underwear and climbed into bed – a stiff mattress with 4 blankets. As we lay down and looked up we could see the stars through the holes in the tent! I thought we were going to freeze but the blankets were pretty good, and of course Mike is a little oven! The night was peaceful except for the fighting cats and the grunting camels.