Reaching the Desert

After stopping to buy food and water at the market, we were finally on the last stretch to the desert! We had craziest car journey of my life. Our guide drove as fast as he could across a rugged road that could barely be called a road at all. The piste was actually just the easiest path the jeep could take across endless sand and gravel. Imagine something like a sandy quad trail going up and down across small sand dunes and through kilometres of rocky fields. Cristiano was right in saying that the desert piste isn’t a concrete thing, but a concept in our minds. We “think the road” and it becomes somewhat of a road in our minds. Unless you’re driving on it, the road doesn’t really exist at all. He, of course, expressed that concept much better than I just did, maybe this video will show what I mean!

After our thrilling car adventure, we arrived at the doors of the Sahara, the first sand dunes! The spot we first reached was a small nomad settlement built in the valleys of dunes . The houses were made with wooden support posts and thick Moroccan rugs for walls. Covered in sand and dirt, worn and old, they might be the most beautiful houses I’ve ever seen. While admiring their rustic simplicity amidst endless dunes, I seriously contemplating dropping everything to live life as a nomad!

We met two nomads that day, and several others while we hiked through the desert. They seemed like the kindest, most genuine people I’ve ever met. They shook our hands while looking us each straight in the eye, smiling, and greeting us in French. It was impossible to tell their ages, their faces and hands were weathered from years of exposure to the harsh desert elements, but there was something so inspiring about the way they looked. I was filled with such respect.

On top of a dune for the first time! The feeling was amazing! We only stopped at the nomad camp for 20 minutes but me and Cristiano ran around on the dunes like little kids the whole time. I thought it was amazing, and I had no idea how much more amazing it would get when we reached the tallest dunes of all!

Look at my “Moroccan” boyfriend ahaha so many times on the trip Moroccans asked him if he was Moroccan too, I think not shaving for 8 days helped!

Of all the days of endless sun in the Sahara, we chose to arrive on the one rainy day a year. We could see the storm clouds from miles away and it seemed like they were chasing us. While we drove it was sunny, but as soon as we took a break to get out of the car and explore the landscape for a bit, the rain would catch up to us! Then we would drive towards the sun, stopping again only to have the rain catch up once more! On one hand it was annoying because the rain meant I couldn’t really take pictures, but on the other I kind of felt honoured to get to experience rain in the Sahara, something that few tourists ever see!