Two days in and out of a car to arrive in Erg Chebbi, where the gigantic sand dunes form a beautiful entrance into the Sahara desert.
Let me address one rumor: it is not hot here. In fact, we are at this point, quite cold. I have been wearing my Uniqlo heattech long sleeve top and leggings for two days with a pair of wool socks—the same items I bought for Iceland. On top I have my yellow jumper, two sweaters, two scarves, and my purple Columbia rain coat. The best thing I thought of...using socks as gloves.
When we arrive, they show us a place to leave our bags. We are only allowed one small bag to bring with us on the camel for our overnight in the desert. Nicole and I basically decide that we are going to sleep in what we are wearing which turns out to be a great idea. It was so cold that I can’t imagine taking off any layers even if it was just to change. The second reason this turned out to be great is that we basically felt that these clothes were disgustingly filthy and have already had them washed at our hostel.
What noise to camels make? Basically they roar. They make a very loud angry noise. Also they make some very disgusting noises when they are looking for a mate. Gross.
We are assigned our camels one by one and Nicole’s camel is wearing a muzzle—this is the only camel in sight (and there were a lot of them) that has a muzzle on. Scary for her and scary for me who is sitting right in front of this camel. I asked our guide “what is the camels name?” And he said “Basur” so I called my camel Basur for about 20 minutes. Then we asked about another camel and he said “they don’t have names”...so it turns out our guide’s name is Basur—not the camel 😂. This reminded me of Frozen when Olaf calls Kristoff Sven, so I updated my camels name to Sven. Sven was super chill unlike Nicole’s camel behind me (which we named Brittany) who kept trying to bite Sven despite her muzzle. Also better than the camel in front of me (which we named Don Juan) who kept making this horrible mating call that sounded like a stomach bubbling while some strange tongue/stomach thing popped out of his mouth. I can’t describe this accurately but it was so gross.
off we go into the desert!
Getting up on the camel was not so bad, just a little bit of rocking back and forth. Riding the camel was not terrible, definitely not comfortable after 15 minutes, but it was bearable. Getting down was scary for me, you basically feel like you are going to fall off. We were with twelve people and I was the only one who screamed...I’m such a baby!
We stopped to watch the sunset about halfway to our camp, ran up and down the sand dunes, took plenty of pictures, and then put coats and scarves back on because it was so darn cold without sun.
Another half an hour on the camel and we arrive at our camp in the desert. It looks pretty remote but really it was about an hour on camel, so like 20 minutes walking haha. There are about forty people there including some children, we are showed to a little tent with two beds and 6 blankets. Luckily we know the wool blankets are warm. There is a fire in the center of the camp so we go and sit near there. There is a toilet and running water, however the toilet was questionable by the next morning, it seemed to stop working at some point.
Dinner was served around 9pm, same as the previous night-but not spaghetti! Bread, unknown bland vegetable soup, and chicken tajine! This time there was salt on the table so the soup was better. Dessert? No- more fruit. This time there was yogurt too. Why? Why does Morocco not have dessert? They are missing out!
After dinner there was “Berbere” music by the fire. I put it in quotations because I’m pretty sure it was just some young locals banging on drums. Nicole and I were the first to get up and dance around the fire, we were then quickly included in the band learning to play drums while everyone else was sitting under their blankets. We had a blast dancing like fools.
The highlight of the night was definitely after all this, when one of the young locals started telling us and our German friends riddles in his broken English that made very little sense but that made them even more hilarious. I don’t think I could capture this absurd humor in writing but it was along the lines of “how do you get an elephant in the refrigerator?” (Put your answer in the comments)
one disappointment: the night was hazy and we did not get to see any stars. otherwise-desert camp night was a success.
PS—there are no photos because the WiFi is not good enough to have them upload :(
