D-Day (Desert Day!!!)

With the heat of an African summer beating down on our heads, D-Day was met with mixed emotions. We longed to see the desert but feared the inevitable heat. But as the true travellers (idiots?) that we are, we marched on into the Saharan dunes. A 6 hour trip on an overheated, overcrowded local bus took us to Erfoud, where the journey continued for an hour in grand style in a 'Grand' taxi, where 6 of us (plus a driver) were squeezed into an un-airconditioned, vinyl seated 70's Mercedes in 47 degree heat. The word 'Grand' just doesn't begin to even describe the luxury!


Swimming in our own sweat, we arrived in Merzouga: the edge of the Western Saharan Desert. The dunes loomed over us. It was a spectacular sight to see massive yellow sand dunes suddenly appear after days of travelling through flat stony desert. The dunes began about 50m from the door of our hotel. Our 2 days in the desert were spent venturing out of the hotel only in the early mornings and late afternoons as the temperatures soared around 50 degrees after 10am. The rest of our time was spent eating, sleeping, guzzling water and constantly sweating.


The soft yellow sand of the dunes provided us with more than adequate exercise. A half hour hike would lead us to the top of high dunes where we watched sunrise and sunset and a few camel herds go by. The immensity and the power of the desert and the sky left us awestruck. It was a truly enlightening experience to realise how insignificant and powerless we really are as human beings compared to nature.