Camels and the Sahara Desert
Trip Start
Feb 21, 2006
1
46
58
Trip End
Jul 20, 2006
Sahara Desert, Morocco
Thursday, July 13, 2006
The last few days have been an absolute ball. I have ridden through the Sahara desert on a camel, only 25 KMs from the boarder with Albania, over sand dunes up to 200 metres high. I slept in the desert with 20 other travelers, it was just a rug on the ground on the side of the sand dune. We were all woken up about 6 in the morning covered in sand, it was great! I have eaten a desert meal with my hands and also found out that on one of my first days here I ate pigeon without knowing. It was in the pastry desert that I had in Chefchouen, only just found out it had pigeon in though.
We managed to arrange a group of 13 to go to the Sahara together, all people that we had met in the last week. Which made it a lot more fun because we all knew each other. There was Wombat, Leith, Elle, Jo, and Ange who we had met in Malaga and traveled through Morocco with, they are all from Perth. There were 2 guys and girls from the USA, Washington State about 20 minutes from Canada Beau, Allison, and Dieter and Brooke, who had just been married about a week before after a 12 year relationship. Met when they were 18, I met them when we were all trying to find a room for the night, and ended up at the same place. There was also 2 other girls we had met in Fes, Antonia from Luxembourg and Susannah from Birmingham in England. So there was a diverse group from all over the place, and we all had a ball together.
The desert was the most incredible place, rolling sand dunes and complete peace and quiet. It was an incredible experience, made even better by the group of people and some fantastic guides. Our guide Mohammad, a Buber Nomad, and a group of 5 of us sat up to the early hours of the morning laughing and joking. He was only 25, had never been to school, but spoke, Buber, Arabic, French, English, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese...Incredible. What was amazing was that he could easily joke in French, English and Spanish, which shows a true understanding of the language.
The camel I had on the ride out to the camp was the youngest of all the camels, it was nuts. We christened it "ball breaker", I had it on the way out and Wombat had it on the way back from the camp site. When we walked up to the Camels, Leith was in front of me to get the next camel, but BB started screaming, moaning and jumping around. Leith look at the guide with a scared look on his face and said "no bloody way am I getting on that Camel, mate". So I got stuck with BB, it was an experience, I was walking like a gunslinger for the rest of the night, BB was nuts I kept feeling like I was going to fall off. It was a laugh that Wombat decided to give him a go, there was no way I was getting back on him and everybody had seen what he was like. Wom and I have the privileged of having the mutual respect of each others shattered Manhood. Great fun...
I am back in Marrakesh at the moment, heading to the coast and the surf town of Essouria. Going to hire a car and drive up the coast for the next week towards Tangier with Antonia, Susannah, Wombat and Marie. Cant wait!!
Mal
