Tuesday March 12, 2019
Today I got up early, in time for sunrise, and hiked over to a secluded dune to attempt a timelapse shot of it. Unfortunately, I was joined by another party from our camp a short time later, which put an abrupt end to the timelapse. Chad came out a short while later, and we stayed until the sun was up, watching the shifting shadow and colour patterns on the dunes.
At one point a couple (also from our camp) who were a few dunes away hollered at us to sit down because they were trying to take a photo. I guess there are entitled people even in the desert?? There weren’t a whole lot of people around; just enough to spoil whatever sense of solitude we may have had.
We headed back to camp and into the dining hall for breakfast, which was a hot and cold buffet. It was decent, but not quite on par with the other meals we enjoyed at the camp. Our program for the day was to start at 10 am, so with some time to spare I had a hot shower – we’d seen fires lit under the hot water tanks attached to each tent, and my shower was more than hot enough.
We applied sunscreen generously, and got assistance from the camp staff to tie our head scarves, and then we met up with our cameleer and set off on our camel trek.
We rode over the dunes for a while before we came to an area with a small shrub that provided some shade. Our cameleer set up blankets, built a fire and made us tea.
While we had tea, he tied ropes around the camels’ front legs so that they could only take baby steps, and set them free to graze. This really cracked me up – seeing the camels take little baby steps everywhere was pretty funny (and thankfully, they didn’t seem bothered).
Eventually he rounded up the camels and we rode on, thinking we were going back to camp for lunch; but we actually were riding further away from camp, and eventually hooked up with another party from our camp, also on camels.
We all made our way to a small shrubby area with a shade cloth erected over top of beautiful low tables set with linens and glassware for lunch. There was a truck from camp and several of the camp staff out there cooking over a fire. Lunch consisted of an assorted salad plate and a meatball tagine, and fruit for dessert. The service and attention to detail in this setting were wonderful.
After lunch we rode back to camp, arriving around 3 pm.
We relaxed in our tent for a while, reading and having some cold drinks. We could see that the staff had been busy working at camp while we were gone – they had re-erected the lounge tent that had blown down in the wind storm before we arrived, and were busily furnishing it. By nightfall the lounge area was complete, and the rest of the camp was looking gorgeous with lanterns and other decorative touches back in place.
Before it got dark though, we went back out to the dunes for a few hours prior to sunset, and the kids sand boarded and jumped off the dunes. After the sun went down, we cleaned up for dinner and went down to the dining tent to eat – soup to start, similar to last night, followed by beef tajine with raisins, vegetables and couscous, and chicken with lemon and olives, plus fruit for dessert. After dinner there was music by the campfire again, this time with different instruments and songs.
Cook Family Travels 