Spending a Night in the Desert

January 10^th-11^th, 2026 

My camel and its driver arrived around 4:30pm to take me into the dunes for an overnight stay.  My driver, Saeed, was a young 20-year-old local Berber who lives in the nomad village that I visited earlier in the day.  I climbed onto the camel and was told to lean back as the creature stood up, first with the hind legs followed by the front ones.

A camel train passing by Camp La Liberte.

I’ve ridden a camel before in Israel, but it was just a short jaunt.  This was going to be about an hour and a half with Saeed leading the camel as he walked.  Camels have a bit of an odd gait and at first I was really clenching my inner thighs to stay centered on the hump but after a while I realized I could relax without falling off.

Here we go...

You can see the initial tension in the clenching of my teeth!

Okay, getting a little more relaxed...enough to film our silhouette.

Saeed spoke very little English and seemingly no French, so most of our ride was fairly quiet.  It seems that only older Moroccans converse in French.  Younger Moroccans are learning English as a second or third language since most tourists know English.  He did ask if I had a tagelmust (the Moroccan headgear) by pointing at his and in fact I had packed the one I purchased in Ait Bennour about a week ago.  I took a gamble and pulled it out of my backpack and tried my best to recall how to put it on as the camel continued to trod on.  It took me a couple of tried but I kinda got it.

My stoic look.

A camel train of tourists.

Hard to see, but if you look closely, there are two people on the top of the dune in the middle of the photo...gives you perspective of how big these dunes are.

Look at the car tracks that bank around the dune...that's impressive.  They must have been driving fast otherwise they might have tipped over.

That's another camel train on the left in the distance.

Having a good time...although my butt isn't.

A camel with a rider on the horizon.

Trodding along on the camel.

The shadows are getting longer as we approach sunset.

Even the camel posed for this one.

Now we are both in deep thought.

That ridgeline in the distance from the left is Algeria.  Morocco and Algeria are not on the greatest terms, mainly due to the dispute about the Western Sahara.

Listen to the strange sounds coming from my camel!  Someone's doing some digesting.  At the end of the clip, you hear a high pitched squeaking sound.  Can you believe that is the camel grinding his teeth!?!

A couple of tourists passing by.  I wish I had been able to get a photo when they were closer as the front camel was stick his tongue way out to one side...it was gross yet fascinating at the same time.  Maybe "gobsmacking" would be a better term.

After over an hour, we stopped on the top of one dune.  Sareed got the camel to lie down and I hopped off.  Due to our lack of a common language, I stood there for about five minutes, unsure of why we had stopped.  Eventually Saeed pulled the blanket off the camel, laid it down on the sand and then I clued in that we were hanging out to watch sunset.

My guy having a rest while we wait for sunset.  I asked Saeed if he has a name, but I got the impression that they don't name camels.

The biggest camel train I saw.  These are typically tour groups that came from Marrakesh on a 2-3 day tour.

Seems like he's tired with all that yawning...followed by some nice teeth grinding.

While we were sitting on the blanket, the camel got up on his own.  Saeed got him to sit down again.

Track from a scarab.

I give it one thumbs up!

The light changing with the lowering sun.

The sunset wasn't actually that spectacular.  You just don't get interesting colours for long, and there are rarely clouds here.

Looking towards Algeria.  Those are white tents.  I'm unsure if that's my camp or not yet.

Nope, this is my camp next door (or "next dune" I guess), with brown tents.

Saeed putting on the camel parking brake.

We arrived at my camp for the night, and I was greeted by two men, a tall guy in a long robe with a mustache and a big smile named Hamid and a younger guy with curly hair whose name I didn’t catch.  Turns out I was the only one staying at this camp tonight although there were 8-10 young tourists hanging out at the top of a dune between my camp and another one with white tents.  I guess they were staying there.

This seems fancy!  I asked Mohammed, the owner of the campground I'm at, for in between, not budget but not deluxe...this is what I got.

Hamid was super friendly.  He showed me to my room and pointed out the bathroom where I could even take a shower, which I did not expect. 

 Naomi often has me film fancy hotel rooms we stay at...so I had to document this place.  I think it was fancier looking on the outside than inside, and I felt like Goldilocks with the three beds.

My fancy schmancy room number.

The dining area.

Not surprisingly, it got quite chilly in the evening, and I was wearing all of the clothes that I had brought, including my merino wool underwear, which I was glad I had brought.  I was fed a local dish called tagine.  It was decent, but there was a lot of food, not just the tagine.

My chicken tagine dinner.

After dinner, Hamid asked if I would like a fire.  The common post-dinner activity is drum playing around a fire.  It was already passed 9 pm and it seemed like a lot of work for just me, plus I sit around a lot of fires in the summertime at the flight park so it’s not like it’s a novelty for me.  I declined the offer and instead walked five minutes out into the darkness of the dunes to stargaze.

The lack of light pollution did make many stars visible that I don’t normally see, especially on my favourite constellation, Orion.  I saw a couple of shooting stars and after about twenty minutes decided to retire and watch a movie on my laptop, which happened to be about the moon (although I was lucky that the moon hadn’t risen yet, which made the stargazing better).

I didn’t sleep very well that night, mostly due to a hard bed but it was also a bit chilly.  I woke up for sunrise and walked up a nearby dune where a table and chairs was located.  Hamid told me he would bring breakfast up there at 9 am (sunrise was around 8:30).  I just arrived in time to see the sun appear.

The camp in the morning.

This was a lounge where I hung out drinking tea the night before.

My camp.

There she is.

There's a figure on the top of the dune, right in the middle of the photo, also enjoying sunrise.

That looks a lot like my camel...in fact it was, Saeed was here early.

A crow trying to hijack my camel.

Hamid appeared below at the camp and yelled up to me to come down for breakfast when I was ready…I guess there was a change in plans.  After breakfast, I grabbed my backpack, thanked the guys for their hospitality and headed off on the camel with Saeed leading the way again.

My personal staff!

Getting on the camel for the ride back.

Another beautiful winter day in the desert.

I should be in a Contigo Mug commercial!

I can see the camp in the distance.

And the dismount...nailed it!

Off goes my ride.

I have to admit that I was happy when the return camel ride was over.  My butt and inner thighs were letting their complaints be known…but what a fun adventure.  I relaxed for the remainder of the day, catching up on some blogging and watching some of the Africa Cup of Nations football matches.  It was a well-deserved rest.  Tomorrow will be a driving day, heading 5-6 hours north as my time in Morocco is almost at an end.

Saying goodbye to this lovely gentleman, Mohammed, the owner of Camp La Liberte.  He was a kind, caring soul.  Merci monsieur.