We made it to the Sahara Desert

After meeting up with our new friend Matt in Erfoud, 3 other peace corps volunteers Jen Nate and Dan jump off the bus, and we decide to split the cat-cat(4x4 quatre-quatre) ride out to the dunes in Merzouga where we can literally drive on the bottom of the old ocean floor off the paved roads to the dunes of Merzouga, the largest section of sand dunes in Morocco. right next door is Algeria...We got to enjoy the views from the top of the cat cat....

When we arrived into town we immediately packed up and met our guide, Abdullah, the kid with the blue turban, and he led us out on our camels, Blonde, and the young Jimi Hendrix, 6km into the desert to an old nomad Berber tent camp which is nestled in the dunes at an oasis... It was simply amazing to watch the sunset over the Sahara while on top of a camel....then one by one the crystal clear stars revealed themselves to make a spectacular light show as the moon lit up the desert so that only candles needed to be used...I have never felt so peaceful and simply in the middle of nowhere....After much chatting with Abdullah using french, spanish, english, and the few Arabic words we knew, finally we asked him if we could get some dinner, and he thought we were concerned that the camels would eat. He reassured us that camels can go a long time without eating, and after our night dunes walk with optical illusions and all, called us in for a wonderful tajine (chicken and vegetable stew) dinner in our tent.. Oranges and tea for dessert.....He woke us at sunrise and this picture is of the view of the sunset from within the tent we slept in that was made of camel and goat wool to keep the sand and wind out...we hiked up the highest dunes we could see and this is the view of our 2 camels chillin and the berber tent nomad camp below...