Sahara - Erg Chebbi

This is why I came to Morocco. Fed on images of the desert from Laurence of Arabia to the award winning books, Sahara Unveiled by William Langewiesche and even Dune by Frank Herbert, I wanted to see the "Dune Sea." I am not disappointed. This is worth the price of admission.

Do Not Adjust Your Set: These pictures were taken in Mid-April 2000 with a first generation digital camera. They are as big as they'll ever get.

Going East and South as we leave Erfoud, we head toward Erg Chebbi, After the 2 hour drive in Land Rovers, we will sleep there in tents, awake at dawn to climb the dunes and witness the sunrise.
As we arrive at our camp, it is sunset. The sand and dust in the air turn the sun into a silver/gold ball of fire. Click the image at left to expand it (as usual) and you can just see the silhouette of our Land Rover, below and to the right of the sun.
We arise before dawn and climb about a 1000 vertical feet to the top of the nearest dune to witness the sunrise. I do this each morning in the desert because the colors are incredible. The changing patterns of light and shadow fascinate me.
It is tempting to believe there is no life in the dunes but it is not true. Here a small beetle starts to bury itself in the sand beside the print from my New Balance walking shoes. I found tracks of mice, birds and other small animals in the sand. There's a whole ecology starting with the very small and ending with small at the top of the short food chain. Only the oases (or in our case - the technology of our trusty Land Rovers) make it possible for people to be here.

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