3 days and 3 nights in the Sahara Desert: photo story

Today I will be sharing with you a memorable experience with wonderful pictures dating back to Christmas of 2019. I met my sister, her husband and my dad in Morocco for a 2 week vacation.

By the time Christmas Eve had come around we had found ourselves at the edge of the Sahara Desert in Morocco. It was winter though so it did get very cold at night.

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The first night we stayed in a desert camp about 7km outside of a small town. The sky was brilliant and I could hardly due it justice but I captured this picture with the below settings and using its lens as prop on the ground and my phone to remote trigger the photo to minimize any shakes.

f/8
30 seconds exposure
19mm
ISO 6400

The next day we wondered off into the desert with 4 Dromedary. We walked for a few hours then we broke for lunch and sat in the shade of a bush for a few hours of the hottest part of the day.

Every lunch break would start with unloading the Dromedary and tying their front legs together so they could move around and graze and in theory not go to far.

Then a fire would get started and the tea would come. And the targines were prepared and put in the fire.

I would say some of the best food I had in Morocco was our two desert guides cooking on the camp fire.

After a filling lunch and as the shadows started to get longer it was time to get back on the trail or in this case the sand dunes.

You know how I said "in theory" the dromedary would not go too far with their legs tied together well, in practice it was a different story. It took a while fore the guides to find all the camels but we were eventually walking again.

With the sun to our back in the later hours of the afternoon we walked up an old river bed. We then wound our way through some dunes to find the perfect place to camp for the night.

Camp was set again and this time we set up a large tent for the night and set out rugs and mats around the fire. This is how we spent our Christmas eve.

After sunset things got chilly quickly and we all huddled and slept under numerous blankets in the tent.

I guess the Dromedary were not getting holiday pay because they decided not to show up for work the next day. The guides spent the whole morning looking for them but it was not until the early afternoon that they returned with them.

We set off in the afternoon as half the day was already gone the plan was to just take one walk and then make camp for the night rather then splitting it up with another break and we had already had lunch.

I don't think any of us complained too much it was very relaxing, reading, napping and taking in the surroundings.

We stopped at a well near by for the dromedary to fill their humps with water again. I kind of wonder if this is where they had been all night drinking though and they found somewhere to sleep it off in the morning before being found.

We walked into more of a dune place and eventually made camp for the night.

That evening we had a spectacular sunset and a great meal again. This time the guides made fresh break using the sand as an oven. They then brushed all the sand off the bread and it was amazing.

The next day on the way to the desert camp and to end the trip we all took a turn at riding the dromedary just to see what it was like.