By Paul Bryers

• Day Itinerary: Drive Arfoud (Gate to Sahara) to Sahara
• Accommodation: Sandy Tents, Sahara

After departing Afoud, I visited a local town, Rissani, to see a typical, non-touristy Medina and local market.

The guide was, I think, Achmed – nice guy who knew everyone.

I must admit that I didn’t enjoy the experience.

Firstly, because I became possessed by vaporous demons coming out of the open sewer drains while in the dark, dank alleyways – poor guys working on them looked green.

Second, due to the live animals being sold for food … I enjoy my meat like the next carnivore but I don’t need to see the details.

And finally, the pressure to make purchases. I informed my guide, who was fine, that I had had enough early on in the tour, and Said and I left.

The Sahara is often referred to as “The greatest desert” – Aṣ-ṣaḥrā’ al-kubrá in Arabic.

It spans much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and the Sudan.

With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.

The Sahara is a desert primarily due to atmospheric circulation patterns that create a high-pressure zone, but its history has also been shaped by cyclical changes in Earth’s orbit and, more recently, by human activity.

For a long time, the Sahara experienced periods of heavy rainfall and lush vegetation when its location was wetter due to a strengthened monsoon, but the current arid state is due to the persistent high-pressure system over the region, which causes air to descend, dry out, and prevent cloud formation.

The deathstalker scorpion can be 10 cm (3.9 in) long. Its venom contains large amounts of agitoxin and scyllatoxin and is very dangerous; however, a sting from this scorpion rarely kills a healthy adult. I find that comforting (as I check all corners of my tent)…

As we approached the Sahara’s sand dunes, the remaining greenery disappeared apart from some succulents.

As we ventured off-road, the gravel that comprises about 90% of the Sahara…..

…..gave way to the golden sand dunes we see in the movies. The scenery was wonderful and beautiful.

Upon arrival at my Sandy Tents camp, I checked my room, which was very nice with a large panoramic window facing west.

I then took a short siesta after checking for deathstalkers.

At 5:30 pm, I embarked on a camel ride to the dunes to witness the sunset (6:24 pm).

Hassan was my camel lad – a nice guy with a naughty sense of humor, or so I thought, as my Arabic is still very limited after four weeks.

Callum The Camel, was nice enough but quite flatulent. He blamed Hassan, but I’m not so sure…

We set off to catch the last minutes of the sun…

As the sun set, the color of the dunes changed, and there was no sound other than Callum’s occasional flatulence. The experience was beautiful and moving (not the farting, the solitude).

We took some artistic shots.

The sunset got even more beautiful.

Then it was time to wear something yellow and get back on Callum……

….and trek back to the camp under the moon, which was rising over the border with Algeria – easily visible due to a high mountain range.

Dinner at the camp was excellent, although there was far too much food, as usual.

Now it’s time to retire, knowing that the desert is just beyond my uncurtained window…view at midnight…