It's finally the first (half) day of our trek. We have a 4-5 hour drive in our 4 x 4's along the Draa Valley. We pass through Achbarou (the "Door of the Desert"), Tansikht, and Jebel Saghro before enjoying a picnic lunch and then a sudden drop off (literally, in the middle of no where) to begin the 9 km trek to our first camp.
We leave the comfort of Le Berbere Palace in Ouarzazate and continue heading south east to reach the Sahara Desert. Our boxed lunches consisted of fresh bread, a whole tomato, cheese, an orange, canned tuna, hard boiled eggs and some mystery meat.
Day packs loaded, we prepare to venture on foot into the Sahara. Our first 9 km was as you can see, flat and desolate. The majority of this 2 hours we could faintly see the tops of our white bedouin tents.
Our transport vehicles with our crew drove ahead to get our camp ready for us. Let me tell you, we were not ready for our camp. The 14 crew members we had that traveled with us went so far above and beyond what we could have imagined for camping in the desert.
We were glamping to put it lightly. Gorgeous bedouin sleeping tents, shower tents, toilet tents, even functioning sinks with mirrors! Walking in being served hot tea and cookies felt like we were entering a desert oasis. Don't be fooled, you'd think having a hot cup of tea isn't something you'd want after walking through a desert, however it is honestly the most delicious, refreshing treats imaginable.
Our camp was tucked perfectly into a semi-circular clump of mini dunes, with the focal point being a large set up of tables and chairs for our group to gather.
We settled into our tents and set to explore our first camp site. We arrived shortly before sunset and enjoyed dinner after dark.
The most incredible sky I've ever seen.
*** Please note all photographs in this post were taken by one of our talented trek mates, Sebastian Albrecht. I am clearly not nearly as good at photography as he is. ***