After a rushed day, it was nice to take it more slowly. Breakfast and shopping in Erfoud, then we set our GPS units and set off into the Sahara for the town of Merzouga. We had tea, played boccie ball, and had a long leisurely lunch while waiting for the camels, then we trekked out into the dunes to our campsite at the oasis.

Andy . The head scarves were a necessity. At times the blowing sand was pretty severe.	Our camel caravan. This is Nabil, Laura/Ashton, Andrew, Heidi, Karen, Sandy	Andy and Sandy. We had just dismounted the camels and they are being led to our camp. You can just make out one of our two Berber tents above the dune on left.
Bob and Hassan. Hassan is a bit famous, having led Hillary Clinton's camel on a similar trek a few years back.	At camp we had tea, played on the dunes, had tea again, had dinner, and then had tea again around a campfire. The campfire was amazing, with Arabic, Berber, French, English, and Spanish languages all being spoken. It made the sing-alongs and storying telling pretty interesting! Here Nabil accompanies Hassan on the drums. Two of our 5 Spanish companions can be seen next to Hassan.	Heidi dismounts her camel upon arriving back in Merzouga.
Once we arrived in camp the camels legs were tied together so that they could not take long strides, then they were free to roam about until we needed them again the following morning.	This is our camp. The whole camp. There is nothing around us but dunes. We had hoped to sleep out under the stars but the weather forecast was iffy, so our guides asked us to sleep in the tents. Good thing, as it did rain a bit during the night. The cluster of people is Andy, Bob, Karen, Matt, and Heidi.	The camels were well mannered and kinda cute. They seemed to be well cared for.
Making up the saddles for the ride back to civilization. The blankets we slept on were made into saddles	These lizards were so cool! Fish of the Desert. Our Berber guides would catch them and hand them up to us on our camels. We passed them around then let them go.	The 'view from our hotel' when we spent the night in the Sahara. You can see the camels roaming around.
Downtown Merzouga. And its enterprising children.	It must be a very different life, living in this town on the edge of the Sahara.	Boccie ball while waiting for lunch. Bob, Nabil, Karen, Matt, Andy, Andrew, and a Berber host.
Andy and Sandy in the lush, well-irrigated, walled Merzouga gardens.	Andy was impressed by this serious raid car.	Another shot of the raid car.