We spent the night before our trip into the desert in Zagora (last ATP before the desert!) and headed the road (N9) early in the morning. The first kilometers of the road where so fantastic and new that we thought we will mange the whole trip in just one hour but after about 20 kilometers we were confronted with the reality.
The road first became from two way to single track. From then on it was something like a joke. The concrete single way road had sharp edges on the left and right side about 20 to 30 centimetres above the sand level. As our car was definitely not suited to any terrain beside a German Autobahn we had to try not drop off the sides whilst dodging incoming traffic. So we kept the speed at 90 km/h and only left the carriage if the other car didn`t made way until we were short before a frontal crash. And when I say short before I mean damn close… Most of the time we won but sometimes the jumps off and on the street were just too much for the car that it made us shiver. But we made it in the end. During the drive we already got a feeling for what it means to be in the desert.
The entire scenery didn’t change much for two hours. No trees, just stones and dust. And no sand or dunes or anything like that… I thought the Sahara is a huge sandbox???
At the Kasbah Sahara Service in Mhamid (www.hotelmhamid.com) we exchanged our tortured little car for a 4×4 and a driver. Still wondering about the 12 Liter of water we were equipped with each, we left the little village into open desert.
Also here desert meant no sand and I started wondering why my romantic imagination of desert always included red sand dunes. Was I so wrong? After two hours of driving, two trees, one “Fatamorgana” and a little group of Bedouins finally some red dunes were appearing on the horizon. Little girl’s dreams came true. Hurray. The driver brought us in the middle of the dunes where a little tent camp was waiting for us – completely empty. No one there beside millions of flies. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz Beginning of November appears to be the time of the flies. Great. 50°C, no air condition and millions of flies in the middle of the desert. There was the little girl’s dream fading away – again.
The guide told us to wait some hours until temperature cools down a bit and then we can start the camel ride into the dunes. Riding through the desert on a camel afterwards was just completely cliché fulfilling and the little girl in me was happy.
We came back to the camp when the sun was just about to set so we immediately started to climb up the biggest dune in that area to enjoy the sunset. Truly beautiful. With the sunset also the flies disappeared and for the first time we could hear that unbelievable silence we were surrounded by. Just us in the middle of nowhere. Fascinating.
Back in the camp the stars came out and by lying on the sand watching these billions of stars I found out the pictures in my school books about the universe weren`t wrong. One hour later the spectacle was interrupted by the rising moon. Bright like a sunrise it came up behind the dunes. Conclusion. If you haven`t been to the desert – go! You don`t have to spend more than one night there as there is nothing much to do but this 24 hours you will always remember!
After that desert trip we spent two more nights at the Dar Azaward Hotel (http://www.darazawad.com/) situated in the middle of an oasis at the boarder of the Sahara.
