As part of an organ­ised tour through Morocco, we had an overnight camp in the Sahara Desert. Arriv­ing at an auberge or inn, we had a chance to off­load our bags, col­lect overnight gear and sip mint tea before climb­ing onto camels for an hour long ride through the mag­ni­fi­cent dunes of Erg Chebbi. The views as we were rid­ing were amaz­ing — rolling dunes of a beau­ti­ful orange gold col­our and so peace­ful. The camels seemed so pla­cid, happy to stay in form­a­tion, and did as they were told. I’m sure they would have found their own way to the camp, but we had a guide lead­ing us.

The camp was a great setup — about 4 indi­vidual tents with thick blankets over tim­ber frames on the walls and roof, all con­nec­ted with an open area con­tain­ing low tables and comfy cush­ions in the centre. Each tent looked like it could sleep about 6 people, we had a small group of only 7 and apart from our tour leader and the guide, had the place to ourselves.

After set­tling in and pick­ing tents, we decided to climb the dune behind the camp to watch the sun set. It was a tough climb, the dune was massive and the sand was so soft it was hard to get a foot­ing. There’s just no way you can pro­gress by try­ing to go straight up, so it was a mat­ter of criss-crossing and climb­ing at the same time. Even climb­ing side­ways across it was tough. There was no point wear­ing shoes, as they quickly filled with sand. I took off my shoes so I could climb more eas­ily, But I then had to carry my shoes and was almost crawl­ing a lot of the way. At the peak of the dune it was not as dif­fi­cult, but still hard to get across. We man­euvered along the peak by put­ting one foot on either side of the peak and pro­gress­ing that way. Finally we got to the top of the dune and sat in the wind and the cold to watch the sun go down. It was worth the effort though as it was a spec­tac­u­lar sight and one of those moments to always remem­ber. The only bad thing about the whole exper­i­ence was the sand con­stantly blow­ing every­where — got in your eyes, nose, ears, mouth, cloth­ing, even in my cam­era lens.

Com­ing down was much easier, I think it took well over an hour to climb up, but only 10–15 mins to get down.

While we were away, the guide had pre­pared din­ner. We were joined by another group who were camp­ing a short dis­tance from us. Din­ner was chicken and veget­able tagines all pre­pared using the simplest of cook­ing tools. We enjoyed our deli­cious meal sit­ting on the cush­ions around the tables. Desert was fresh oranges, then we sat around an open fire while our guide and tour leader played bongo drums – it was such an excel­lent way to fin­ish the day.

I was a little wor­ried that it would be too cold to sleep in the tent, but with the thick blankets around the walls and a sleep­ing bag to cover me, I had one of the best night’s sleep of our whole trip.

Travel-Junkie Mar­ket­place Offer

Ocean & Desert Tour of Morocco in Morocco (Dec 10, 2011 — Dec 17, 2011). Won­der­ful exper­i­ence to explore vis­its to “Out of the beaten track” com­bined with “Essaouira” a heaven for wind­surfers and one of the most beau­ti­ful and unspoiled towns in Morocco. — Wild and remote deserts — Bedouin life — Rugged Atlas moun­tains. Find more trav­el­ers to join the trip and save! Check out the cur­rent price and the jour­ney details!