Tuesday was the day to which our students were most looking forward: I would be camel-riding day! We boarded the van in the morning anticipating a long, 9-hour drive into the desert. As soon as we were ready to set out, our tour director, Nourdene, told us there was bad news and there was good news.
 |
| Blowing sand to the right |
The bad news was that a spring storm had brought more than a meter (roughly 39 inches) of new snow to the passes in the Atlas Mountains. Roads were closed. The good news, he said, was that there was another way, it would only take a little longer. All cheered.
Hours later, no one was cheering. We had kids who were sick (we didn't get the van to the side of the road in time for one, who vomited). All of us were sick and tired of being in the van. Every time we asked how much farther it was, Nourdene would chat in Arabic with our driver, Mohammed, and then tell us, "three hours more." Three hours later, we got the same answer.
Most of the trip was over landscape that was 57 varieties of godforsaken. We drove through rain, snow flurries, dust storm, and sun. We stopped for lunch in some wide spot in the road where the meat was so fresh that it had just come from the herd (we passed on that, but many of the kids ate, as did Nourdene and Mohammed.
 |
| Lunch anyone? It's fresh! |
The bad news was that when we finally did reach the camels, it was well past sunset. The good news was that we rode over desert sand dunes under a bright full moon, which we all found quite magical (though no good for photos). That, and a good meal at the desert camp, almost made up for a long and generally bad day.
 |
| Actually, a camel ride under a full moon is kind of neat. |
No comments:
Post a Comment