The Desert (By Luke)

 After being in a car for 4 hours we were anxious to play in the famous sand dunes of the Sahara Desert. Mohamed, our driver put the car in 4 wheel drive and we drove in the sand dunes. It was like a roller coaster except we were out in the middle of the desert! We got to our place in Merzouga and unpacked our stuff. We then got to play in the sand dunes for half an hour. It was so soft. It was also really fun to try to run uphill because we would keep on slipping and falling to the bottom. There was just so much sand.

 Finally Mohamed told us that we would be going to our camels now. The trick to getting on a camel is to lean back because the camels get up with their front legs first so it kind of jerks you forward. There was a handle though which helped steady yourself. After 5 minutes we were all on our camels. I forgot that camels are extremely slow animals and I wondered how far we were from the bivouac tent that we were staying in that night if the camel ride was only an hour and a half. The first 15 minutes of the camel ride was awesome and fun. The rest was a little painful. Whenever going downhill you had to lean back or else you would fall off. Our hands had lot of blisters due to the non-stop 90 minutes of grasping at the handles attached to the camel's backs.

 Once we got there we hopped off our camels after almost falling off our camels when they went to sit down. We got to our tent. There was approximately zero natural light but we would only sleep in the tent one night. We then went for a walk to a huge sand dune. It took me about 25 minutes to run/jog/walk/stop up the huge hill. I finally got to the top and just fell down. Once we all saw the sun setting we decided to head back. Jacob, Maggie, and I ran down slipping at least 10 times every 50 feet. After getting to the bottom of the hill we walked back. It was getting almost dark enough for us to barely see a thing when a man that worked at our bivouac came and helped guide us back.

    Once we got back some people were already in the dining room. We met an Australian couple and 4 teachers in France teaching English. 3 of them were from the States and one of them was from the U.K. The dinner there was so good and so much of it. Even 5 hungry mouths couldn't finish all the dishes. We then played some soccer and had a bonfire where some people were talking, learning how to play the drums, or just pounding the drum to no rhythm at all. After we could barely keep our eyes open we went to sleep quicker than I expected.

    The next morning, we got up bright and early to see the sunrise. We also got to sand board. It was really fun going down the hill but it got a lot of sand in my shoes. We sand boarded for half an hour while watching the sun rise.

We then packed up and got on our camels. The camel ride back I could have done without. It was a beautiful scenery around me but I wish I could admire it not bouncing up and down constantly. After an enjoyable but painful 75 minutes we got back to our hotel and had breakfast. I really enjoyed playing in the desert. I still can't get over how much sand there is. I mean it was just miles after miles of sand. If you do happen to go to Morocco, visiting the desert is a must do.

The Sahara Desert (by Maggie)

One evening in the Sahara Desert in Morocco, we rode camels.  Riding camels was extremely fun, but then again, a little scary.  The camels would move both right legs, then both their left legs, so it was a bit of a bumpy ride. We rode our camels on and on over the beautiful dunes while the sun set. Getting down from the camels was scary because they went face first, really fast. Luckily, I was not the first to get down, so I knew what was coming.

 We walked through the incredibly soft sand to the tents that we would be sleeping in that night. They were Berber tents. The Berber are a tribe of people from southern Morocco, some of who are nomadic.  When all the tents are set up together, it is called a bivouac.

 We hiked up to the highest sand dune. Boy, was that tiring, but it was so worth it because we got to run down really fast.

 We woke up the next morning and got to sand board. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! We rode the fat camels back to the hotel where our stuff was, with a few stops because Luke almost fell off his camel! We got down one more scary time, played in the Sahara for about 15 minutes.  We got in the car, thinking we took half the sand of the Sahara in our shoes and our hair!