The wonderful, wonderful sahara desert

Contemplation under the stars
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(Nicks Story).  So the last of the big adventures was to spend some time in the desert.  We found a good trip with a 4WD, driver and 2 nights in the desert that fit our price and off we went.

It was a 3 hour ride to Zagora and then another 2 hours to MHamid.  In the 4WD Landcruiser, we were traveling in style.  We did stop off for lunch, another salad and tajine and in to the sand we went.  Our first night was only 10km out of M'Hamid and was good without being 'Wow'.  What was incredible was lying on the sand looking at the stars, not a sound, no breeze, just a wonderful feeling of isolation.  There was only one other couple there and we had a lovely meal together, salad and tajine...again, and we happily went to our little hut to sleep in the silence of the desert, that is until the staff decided that they wanted to play us some authentic desert music.....it was awful, loud, like cats fighting but luckily only for 30 minutes and then we got the silence of the desert. I woke up at 5am to see the sun slowly coming up.  It was a fantastic time to have cool sand on my feet, no sounds, no breeze, cool atmosphere and the start of the changes of the colors of the desert.

An incredible way to finish the last big adventure

I'm wishing on a star.......
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The second night we drove 60km further in to the desert and finally felt that we were truely in the Sahara.  It was a hot day and we stopped at an Oasis to have lunch and lie under the trees for some shade. The hot wind was blowing and we felt part of the experience of living in the desert.  We arrived at Erg Chigaga (not listed on Real Travel locations!) at about 4pm and sat for 2 hours just staring at the dunes.  One is more than 300m high......so we decided not to climb that one.  At about 6pm we walked off in to the desert to climb the highest dune to see the sunset.  The walk was amazing, up and down dunes, steps up...sliding down, sand colors changing and easily getting lost even though we were only 10 minutes from camp.  At the top we had the desert to ourselves....our last WOW moment in Africa.  It was really that special.  We couldn't stop taking pictures because the colors seemed to be changing every minute.  After about 20 minutes of desert solitude, another group from a different camp arrived.....so we left.....we could not have had a better experience.

Home sweet home
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Again, the middle of the night in the desert was amazing.  The stars were intense and as the sun rose, the desert came to life......well, not exactly life, some birds, some wind, a litle sand storm and the dunes seemed to change shape before our eyes.

A 7 hour drive dropped us in Tazzarine and our VIP room.  A 20 minute shower got most of the sand out of my ears, eyes and everywhere else imaginable, and we were left to reflect on one of the most amazing trips in our African adventure.........WOW!

Practing my OM mantra
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Ronnie's story

Last minute planning is great. We walked around the hot, dusty town of Ouarzazate and talked to 2 Sahara desert tour companies. After some tough price negotiating by Nick, we decided to go with the first company, M'Hamid tours.

We had a beautiful vehicle, a 4WD Landcruiser, and a very good driver named Omar. Omar could speak about as much English as Nick could speak French..... in other words, not much.  He kept wanting to point out uninteresting sites and stop at boring tourist traps and Nick kept reminding him that 'all we care about is sand dunes and football.'

Ultimate sand soccer
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We arrived at our first bivouac, located outside M'Hamid, around 430pm and it was still very hot.  The bivouac consisted of some very basic structures and Berber tents..... fantastic places! The sunset was obscured by the clouds but the cooling temperatures were much welcomed. The best part was lying outside on cushions looking at the stars... probably the most fantastic night sky I have ever seen! We even saw a shooting star.  After eating a perfectly cooked chicken tanjine we were happily off to bed enjoying the desert silence until.... the staff starting banging on plastic cans and 'singing.'

Thanks Kevin and MB for giving us light
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The next day we were off to the prized destination of Erg Chigaga. This erg, or sand dune, was reputed to have 300m tall dunes and landscapes that Hollywood movies are made of.... and it did not disappoint. Our second bivouac was even  more remote and basic. We even had the place to ourselves for a full 20 minutes. About 1 hour before sunset, we decided to climb the tallest dune next to our camp. It was a tough climb but the changing colors and patterns of the sand were amazing.  We had the top to ourselves for about 15 minutes before 30 tourists came huffing and puffing up our dune. The moments to ourselves on the dune will definitely make my top 5 list.

National Geographic eat your heart out
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The next day on our drive back we had an interesting 2 hour discussion with Omar on world religions. He dropped us off in Tazzarine where we were treated like football royalty. Then it was off for one last hideously long bus ride to Meknes.