1/12/2014 - Life in the Sahara Desert

Moroccan saying: If you put one foot on tomorrow and put one foot on yesterday, you'll piss on today.

Up with the sun at 6:30 AM, followed by some tea, coffee & small bites for breakfast, provided by our incredible steward, Hussein. Out to the dunes for sunrise and meditation.

(L to R): Aziz, master storyteller & rabbit (Lily) murderer;
Hussein, our wonderful camp steward;
and the drivers loading us up for departure.

Nomadic life in the Sahara.
Bottom row (L to R): baking bread; camel grazing;
spinning came wool for carpets.

There are about 200 nomadic villages in the Sahara. Since nomads do not attend school they are illiterate and only look forward to being tent wives if female and camel herders if male. There is a high mortality rate, particularly from silicosis (caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust, and is marked by inflammation and scarring in the form of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs).

Sunrise in the Sahara. 
The Sahara is 80% rocks, 10% sand and 10% mountains.

We visit a farm later and hunt for fossils. We conclude the evening with some hilarious tales around the campfire, with Aziz sharing his favorite question ever asked by one of his travelers: "Why did the Romans build so many ruins?"