The road ended in Zagora. Spencer and I met up with a Berber guide and two camels, who were to be our rides into the desert.
On a signal from our guide, the camels lay down, folding their legs flat under them. We climbed on our camels, sitting slightly behind the hump on top of some saddle blankets. A metal handhold was affixed to a strap that ran around the animal’s underside. We held on, and at a signal from our guide, the camels stood up. Quickly. Our guide lashed our gear to the straps that secured the saddle blankets, and we were off.
The foothills of the Atlas range soon gave way to relatively flat desert sand. It was already late afternoon when we started off, and soon we were treated to the rise of the full moon from behind the hills. It bathed the desert in light bright enough to cast shadows.
Eventually, we came to a Berber encampment that consisted of about a half-dozen tents made from sewn-together pieces of burlap. Some other travelers joined us there. This was our home for the night.
While the outside wasn’t much to look at, the insides were positively luxurious. Our beds were enormous and were covered with heavy blankets that kept us warm even in the cold desert night. A solar panel provided electricity for a small lightbulb, but that ran out after about three hours.
We had a nice dinner of chicken tagine, followed by an impromptu concert by the Berber guides. I had hoped to see a brilliant spangle of stars in the desert sky, but the moon washed out everything except the very brightest of them.
We got up early the next morning so we could ride in the cooler part of the day. Our transportation awaited us.
We mounted up again and headed back to Zagora. It was a short trek. Too short. Now that I’ve seen what it’s like, I will go longer and deeper into the desert next time.
Traveling by camel is obviously a tourist fantasy. Berbers today are far more likely to take 4x4s into the desert. Despite the contrivance, though, seeing the desert from camelback was a lot more intimate than glimpsing it through a car window. And it was not too difficult to imagine what life must have been like for desert nomads before roads and 4x4s pushed into the Sahara.
Jim, it looks as though you could easily slide off backwards. Just an illusion or a mirage, I hope.
I know it looks that way, but I didn’t feel particularly insecure. I gripped hard with my thighs and leaned forward and felt fine. I felt a lot more at risk of tumbling off when I rode the elephant in Laos.
Now that you’re finished with Tunisia, where to next?
In the short term, I will be heading off to Chicago, a city I have passed through several times but never really explored in depth. I’ll be staying there on and off in April and May. Longer term plans are uncertain at this point, but I will definitely be out of the country again by this fall.