and now for another drive - fortunately we think Lahsen took a nap during the wedding while we were shaking our booties in the women's section - because he now took the 4x4 completely off road to cross the desert - absolutely no tracks to show the way - but he is a man of the desert and without hesitation gets us to the fantastic desert camp at Erg Chigaga (Erg means dunes) after a couple of hours
all exhaustion from long drives and uber-authentic wedding experience are gone when we arrive at this paradise in the desert - number one, to our delight there is a SHOWER tent! then our own tent has 3 large European-style (i.e. off the ground) beds and carpeted floors and ELECTRICITY powered by the sun - AND we can now unpack our long-lost suitcases!!
we still have a couple of hours before sunset, so we run around the camp happily powering up our devices and rummaging in our bags (although funnily enough i never even opened my toiletries bag, having made do for so long with our Turkish Airlines amenity kits, stuff we'd bought at Marjane and Carrefour, and things like cotton pads and mini-shampoos acquired from our hotels)
as Lahsen had promised, they do provide sand boards and Kelly went down the side of a dune many times with Lahsen's son, who had snoozed in the front seat on our drive from their village - 2 of Lahsen's brothers work at the camp and so Raddah got to hang out with his uncles
we also of course climbed to the top of some of the dunes for the spectacular view - hardly any other 'civilization' to be seen besides our camp of 6 wool-flapped tents
it was truly like something from Lawrence of Arabia or any other super-picturesque desert epic - and there was a full moon!
as sunset rapidly descended, lanterns were lit all around the camp and tables and chairs placed on carpets for our sumptuous (and as always, way too much) dinner by the campfire - this is definitely the place for a romantic evening! Kelly and i were happy though just to enjoy it as happy cousins friends and travel companions - thankfully we have enjoyed each other's company through thick and thin on this roller coaster adventure - it would have been easy to get crazy with the lack of sleep and worry and heat, but both of us are such cool people that we have never had a clash of personalities :-)
at some point we saw some strange-looking shadows behind our dinner table, and realized that our camel ride had arrived, but Lahsen asked if we wanted to postpone until sunrise the next day, understanding that we had had a pretty full day already - and as always, the lovely accommodating people there said 'no problem', so the camels went away to sleep, and so did we!
