A night in the desert

We were all looking forward to our camel ride and overnight stay in the desert dunes we could just glimpse from our Riad Nezha in Merzouga. Luckily Maxie and Jennie had recovered enough by late in the day to be able to join the ride.  With great excitement we started out with Omar our camel driver about 6.00pm on Tuesday evening.

After the first 10 minutes or so of holding on for grim life and getting used to the uneven gait of my trusty camel as it navigated the dunes, I started to relax a bit and enjoy this stunningly beautiful desert environment.

Everything is planned perfectly for us on this trip. We reached this perfect vantage point, just as the sun reached the perfect position to light our group (and Omar, the camel driver proved to be a very adept photographer)!

All the photos I took on the ride were rush jobs..I wasn't game to let go of the handlebars on the saddle for more than a nanosecond...

We reached our desert camp by about 7.00pm...and were greeted in great style with mint tea and delicate Moroccan petit fours by these wonderful men.

We are amazed at the opulence of our campsite. We are the only guests and we have our own tents, with comfortable beds.....

...... and flushing toilets and hot showers!!! 

We are served with a beautiful three course dinner.......the table set with beautiful tableware and linen. 

 ...and then a fire afterwards.......

 ....and more of the wonderful Gnaoua music we'd heard earlier in the day.....this is all so amazing!!

I was hoping to see sunrise over the desert this morning, but alas our tour agent let us down on this one...the day dawned too cloudy for us to see the sunrise today, unfortunately, but we got this great view of our campsite......

Rob and I were both sitting up on the dune above our campsite admiring the view when we see our morning coffee about to arrive (without even asking for it)!........

Rob took this pic of me just before another staff member brought some cushions for these chairs - so we would be more comfortable. Our friends ended up joining us for coffee too...an absolutely magical way to start the day!

Omar led our little camel train back from our campsite at around 9.00am. I felt much more relaxed on the way back and enjoyed the ride much more than the evening before. Jennie had taught us a good technique for saving our coccyx pressure points..very effective.

We all rated this an unforgettable experience in magical Morocco!