5 Cucarachas, 2 long bus trips, and 1 unforgetable night under the stars

Cucaracha infestided bathroom

 Sand dunes in the Sahara

 Sunset before the stars arrive

The Sahara this weekend came with a few obstacles before I was able to really appreciate the beauty and peacefulness of the desert.  My first obstacle is unavoidable and impossible to rid myself of; the bus ride to our destination took hairpin turns and steep hills surrounded by barren desert and mountains and valleys.  The bus seemed like with one wrong move the whole caravan would fall over the cliff into the deep valley below.  My stomach has never been able to hold up in long car rides of this capacity and so it gave out--embarrassing me on the bus.

For a our first night stayed at a lovely four star hotel in Erfoud--well almost lovely.  The first thing I see entering the room were two dead cockroaches and one alive just barely escaping my pumbling.  Then we see that the room's air conditioning blows a mild heat forcing us to open the windows only to discover a algae green pool--at a four star hotel.  That night I spent contemplating if a cockroach was going to climb into bed with me will I was sleeping.  Finally, we made it out of there the next day and on our way to the Sahara not expecting much of anything after that rotten night.

Hopping into large Land Rovers, wondering why we couldn't just take the bus, and praying this ride wouldn't give me another foul stomach.  My wish came true--the car zoomed truth the streets and then suddenly intentionally drove off the road onto the deserted sandy and rocky ground heading for a dark lump on the horizon.  As the drivers drove in donuts, over mounds of sand, and swerved on the roadless plain.  After an hour--although it only seemed like a few minutes of pure adrenaline--we arrived at Hotel Yasmina with a priceless view of the Merzdouga sand dunes.  The heat had diminished when we arrived at 4 in the afternoon.  The camels awaited as we mounted them and took off into the desert--over the mounds of sand that seemed like a mamouth sized beach without the water ofcourse.  In the Berber tradition, we bared the last few hours of sun and climbed the sandy mountain.  The difficult climb was a stretch, but the view from the top is always better than stopping midway through.  The sunset was indescribable, but magestic and awe inspiring could cover the beginning of the description. 

Later that night after dismounting from our camels, enjoying a typical Berben dinner, and taking a shower in the clean and cockroach free bathrooms at the hotel, I decide to take a cloth and instead of sleeping in my tent I sleep on the carpeted, sandy, desert floor.  The myraid stars were massive like something out of a dream and some were even shooting across the night sky. By the time I closed my eyes to sleep that night I had made countless wishes. 

So the obstacles of getting there paid off and allowed me to experience something I had never expected to see in my life.