Riding Jamels in the Sahara

By the end of this post, I am sure you will be sick of seeing sand but it was so awesome that I took a ton of pictures! Riding a camel in the Sahara was definitely what I like to call a "Great Wall of China moment"--one in which you say to yourself, "holy hell, I cannot believe I am [insert place here]." In case you are wondering how the heck we rode camels in the Sahara desert in July, we did it at night! We arrived around 6 pm and did not leave for our sunset jaunt until about 7 pm. Because Courtney and I were supposed to go with a different hotel the night before, we ended up on a romantical camel ride with just our Berber guide, Mohammed (who wore imitation crocs!). Now I know I originally said I would not ride any camels (jamels in Arabic) but if you go to the Sahara, you kind of have to. Riding a camel is not only smelly, but also a great core workout--it really gets at your obliques as you move from side to side. My sides (and derriere) are still sore...

Dunes--again!

Our jamels

Courtney

Shadows

My POV--total worth getting food poisoning to get this shot!

Ensemble

Cool palm trees

We had no idea what spending a night at a Berber campsite would be like, but it was very interesting. There was a cluster of different sites owned by each hotel and taken care of by a Berber family (we met Mohammed #2 and his 3 year old son, Omar). Interestingly, our hotel-run camp not only had solar panels, but also a western toilet. After arriving, our guide cooked us dinner and made us Berber whiskey (tea). Mohammed #1 was a very interesting guide who spoke 4 languages (Berber, Arabic, English, French), had 9 siblings and came from a nomadic Berber tribe. I got to ask a lot of questions about camels and being a nomad (eg. what happens when you are off working and you come home to find that camp has been moved? apparently there are a few places that the family always goes to so he just checks each one).

Post dinner, we got to look at the very bright stars until a sandstorm kicked up. I will admit, sleeping inside a Berber tent in summer was quite toasty and not great for sleep but it was too sandy outside. I will also admit I did not sleep well because I was slightly terrified of finding a scorpion on my mattress when I woke up. The camp did have cats prowling around (and they hunt them) but I was not entirely convinced!

Ridiculous toilet

Berber campsite

Omar, our jamels, Mohammed #2 praying towards Mecca