The sand dunes (ergs) were just a small portion of the huge Sahara Desert, which covered 8% the earth’s surface. Most of the desert terrain was rocky and mountainous.
We were staying at Erg Chebbi near Merzouga where the dunes rose 150 metres above the desert floor. The dunes were popular tourist attractions and at dawn and dusk they were alive with groups on camels riding out to watch the sun rise and set. Tourists could take a camel ride out to tented Berber settlements, have dinner and sleep in tents under the stars.
The dunes were magnificent and beautiful. In the bright sunshine they glowed a golden ochre colour and, as the daylight faded, the dunes darkened and formed monochrome patterns of light and shade. Walking over the dunes was good exercise and the sand beneath our bare feet was warm and soft and worked as excellent exfoliation for our aged soles. We spent a couple of days of sociable living amongst the fifty or so camper vans parked alongside the dunes – German, French, Dutch, Swiss and even a few Spanish and English travellers.
After leaving Erg Chebbi we headed north to Source Bleu at Meski to say hello to Hamid, an old friend from our early days in Morocco. Hamid and his family lived a very poor existence in the village of Meski. The villagers were date farmers and owned and ran the camp site set amongst the date palms. In recent years they had been suffering from a lack of visitors and the camp site had become very run-down. The main attraction had been a naturally spring-fed swimming pool. Year on year lack of rain had affected the village’s date crop and the swimming pool had become dry and derelict.
