Dune Champion

Day 65
Monday 31st August 2009

As the sun rose at around 5.30am we were well and truly approaching the desert. But for an oasis deep down in a huge gorge which caught us off guard everything else was dry dry dry. 

On arrival into Rissani we were bullied into boarding a 4x4 with the only other passenger a Japanese chap with a handlebar moustache and aviators who was off his trolley. Earlier we had seen him fall of the coach on one of our toilet stops jump up and proceed to ask a prostitue where the toilet was. The 4x4 would take us to an accomodation on the proviso that if we didn't like it we would be taken to view others in Merzouga right on the edge of the desert with views of the sand dunes. At the accomodation after a white knuckle ride into the desert we weren't happy with what was an offer. This went down like a lead ballooon and they refused to take us onwards to other places. A row commenced which wasn't the best idea as they had us by the balls on their territory in the middle of the desert. We compromised with being taken back to Rissani and starting from square one. 

We made the right decision as we landed some plush accomodation staying with a lovely family spitting distance from the dunes. The father Ali was nice and was obviously a pivotal figure in the village but the highlight was his wife's extraordinarily good cooking and his adorable kids of which he had four-three boys and one girl. As he himself put it 'Many people change wife but why would I? She cleans, she cooks good, she makes four beautiful babies. Why would I change wife? I happy.'

Before you knew it Ali had pulled a few desert strings and we were on the back of camels complete with turbans off into the dunes. It can only be described as another world out there. The colours continuously shifting as the sun set and the feel of the fresh Saharan sand are two things i'll always remember. I'll also remember the fact that our guide probably had the worst job in the world during Ramadam out in the middle of the desert as the sunsets while everbody else tucks into some grub. Let's just put it this way our journey back to the village after sunset was a lot quicker than that out.